Thursday, November 15, 2012
The Underworld
The vision of the underworld portrayed in the Aeneid was far more in detail than that of the Odyssey. The structure and manner in which it was portrayed was exsqisite. The nomadic fields of Elysium where the Lethye takes away the pain of ones past life could represent the lost innocence renewed. Even Tartarus has a structure and rules. There is not the chaos that one comes to expect from death. That could be related to how heaven will be in the Christian's perspective. Our sins and pain of the life we led on Earth will be washed away. The courts in the Roman underworld could also reflect the two judgements fortold in Revelations. There are so many parallels that it is a bit suprising. In the end, death claims us all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree completely that it is a big surprise that there are so many parallels. I think that can translate to other religions. Sure they all have enormous differences, but many of them have similarities. I think that everyone just wants to believe in something.
ReplyDeleteThere really is a progressive development of the underworld that is fascinating. It goes from Homer's idea of wandering, to Virgil's ideas of sections, to what seems to be Dante's circles of hell. What is it about humans that want to organize and describe hell? So interesting.
ReplyDelete