Ancient Death Beliefs
There has always been something very mysterious about the ground under us. For thousands of years humans felt that going underground meant they were getting closer to the netherworld. One has only to look at the practice of many of the ancient races to confirm this fact. While many people say the reason for burial is to preserve bodies from being eaten by animals, others say we put them in the ground to get them closer to the beings who will take charge of their soul. The ancient Greeks believed there was a river under the ground known as the River Styx and there was a boat with a ferryman on it who would take you to the afterlife if you gave him a coin. I am sure not every ancient Greek believed this, but it was quite a popular view at the time. It does make you wonder where this idea originally came from. The name of the ferryman was Charon. The ancient Greeks believed that after you cross the river you came to a place known as Asphodel Fields. The purpose of this place was to erase all your former memories. When he had gotten to the bank of the river there was a three headed dog which prevented you from returning back to the earth. At the end of all this you would come to a fork in the road and three judges would decide where to send your soul. The best place to be sent was Elysium, but if you needed to be punished it was sent to Tartarus. Tartarus was a place deep inside the earth where the sun never shone.
The ancient Romans cared more about honor in life than death. Certain procedures pursued when someone died without regard to what their personal beliefs were. It has been said that even though we have been led to believe the Romans had a much shorter lifespan than we do today, that this is not true and evidence has been found which indicates skeletons have been found of soldiers far into their 80s. It has even been said that a skeleton of a Roman woman was found which showed she lived to be 120 years old. This has been attributed to the high standard of their healthcare and also the Mediterranean diet. Can I absolutely be sure this is true? No, but I am only telling you what some experts have said. The Romans also believed in the underworld and some even believed in the River Styx and the ferryman Charon. Not all Romans felt this way however and many thought this was just symbolic. Many Romans believed there was a God of the underworld named Dis Pater who was sometimes known as Pluto. They also believed his dog was the one who decided who was of good character or not. It was said the dog became ferocious to people who had committed wrong and to those who tried to escape back to the earth. There was a stage after this however and that was judgment. The three judges were Minos, Rhadamanthos and Aeacus and every person had to appear before them and give an account of his or her life. It was said you were given water from the river Lethe which made you forget everything and then souls was sent to different places depending on the judgment. The Romans also felt the best place to go was the Elysium Fields also sometimes known as the Elysian Fields. Warriors, heroes and people of good character were said to live comfortable lives there. The second place you could be sent was the Plain of Asphodel where good people live their lives as ghosts. And then there was Tartarus, the same place the Greeks believed in which was where you were sent to be punished.
The ancient Mesopotamian didn’t leave very many records which show their belief about life after death. We do know however that they did not believe death was the end of everything. They believed your spirit continued to live. We know this because of some of the stories which have survived, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh which contemplates the meaning of death, recounts the fate of the dead in the netherworld and describes mourning rites. Some say this doesn’t prove a thing, because they believe the Epic of Gilgamesh is a work of fiction, but most experts feel that while being fiction it does describe real customs and beliefs.
The ancient Egyptians probably had the most elaborate beliefs about the afterlife and how we should prepare for it. They believed the body was made up of several parts, had a soul, a life force and the force of divine inspiration. They also believed in order for the life force to survive so must the body. This was the basis for the process of mummification. Not all mummification was the same, it depended on your social class. It was believed if you were not mummified you would perish forever, so this process was one of the most important in Egyptian culture. Priests usually carried out the process. They removed the organs of the body without undue damage and placed them in separate canopic jars. The body was then wrapped in linen soaked with chemicals which promoted mummification. Amulets were then placed on the bandages on which written formulas to ensure the survival of the deceased and the afterlife were written. A procession then accompanied the body to the burial place. The procession was led by a funerary priest and he was followed by people carrying objects for the deceased which would make his afterlife more comfortable. When the burial site was reached, the priest would open the mouth of the deceased, because it was believed this feat animated the dead person. The objects along with the sarcophagus and offerings were then put into the grave which was sealed and no one was ever allowed to disturb it. It was believed this was when the deceased began his long journey through the underworld. He was led by Anubis to the Hall of Two Truths. At the end of the hall Osiris waited. He sat on the throne and was accompanied by two other gods and 42 judges. In the center of the room there was a scale and next to it was Thorh, the God of the scribes. The heart of the deceased was then weighed in front of all. The deceased had to give a declaration of innocence. His heart was weighed against the weight of a feather and if it weighed more than the feather the deceased would be devoured by Amit, a monster hippopotamus. If the deceased passed the test he would enter the kingdom of Osiris and attain the fields of IARU a paradise. To get there a long journey had to be made by boat. The boat belonged to the God Ra. The deceased had to cross the lake go through a fire guarded by four baboons crocodiles, snakes and the evil Apophis who was a gigantic monster condemned forever to threaten the sinking of Ra’s boat.
One has to wonder what culture was the first to propose some of these ideas. As you can see some of them are very similar and if we go even further back in time we probably will find more that seem to indicate almost the same thing.
