This document provides background information on ancient Greek beliefs about death and the afterlife. It discusses that Greeks had no concept of heaven or hell, and when people died they were ferried to Hades, a cold, dull place where souls flitted like bats. The Greeks were obsessed with achieving immortality through fame. Heroes like Achilles sought undying fame through valorous deeds. Parents would hire poets like Pindar to compose funeral odes immortalizing sons who died young. The document also discusses how comparative linguistics has found phrases like "undying fame" date back 7,000 years to ancient languages' common ancestor.

1. More background about the Odyssey
Dave Shafer

2. The ancient Greeks
were very different
from people today, in
very many ways. They
had no concept of a
heaven where mortals
might go after death.
They were constantly
offering gifts and sacrifices to
the gods, but could only
benefit, if at all, here on earth
in this life.

3. Death was the end of
anything like life as we
have known it. There
was no concept of a
hell where people
were punished.
When you died you were
transported across the
river Styx by the boatman
Charon, for a fee of two
coins (cash only) and went
to Hades, the land of the
dead.

4. But Hades was not like
our concepts of hell,
shown here – no
punishments, no active
experiences at all.
Instead it was a cold, dark,
mostly quiet, deadly dull place
with no human interest at all,
ruled over by Hades, with his 3
headed dog Cerebus.

5. In Hades, people’s souls flittered about like
bats making high pitched squeaking noises.

6. Doesn’t sound very appealing?
Well it wasn’t to the Greeks
either. They were obsessed with
the immortality enjoyed by the
gods and denied to them. They
realized that the only kind of
immortality a person might have
is fame – very specifically,
undying fame. Not just fame for
a generation but fame for the
ages.
In return for that chance
young heroes like Achilles would
happily exchange a very early
death in battle for undying fame
for valor and achievements.
And here we are talking about
him over 3,000 years later.

7. In later times, in
Athens, parents
who had lost a
young son to war
or athletic
competition would
often hire the
great poet Pindar
to compose an ode
for his funeral to
immortalize him in
verse.
In our own times there is this wonderful poem by the
British poet A.E. Housman.

8. All of this explains why Odysseus, after escaping from
the Cyclops, risked his own life as well as that of his crew
to make sure that the Cyclops Polyphemus knew his real
name – Odysseus – to ensure that this dangerous
encounter be added to his already great fame.
It turns out that the
phrase “undying fame” is
found, often, throughout
the very many branches
of the Indo-European
language group.

9. Comparative linguistics has been able to reconstruct
much of the original parent language from 6,000 or 7,000
years ago, before all the many daughter languages
developed after the diaspora from the homeland in the
Russian steppes or Anatolia.
By this means certain phrases have been shown to be
extremely old, back at least 7,000 years ago. Phrases
like “last but not least”, and two very common ones –
“Undying Fame” and one other one, revealed next.

10. The other extremely
common phrase in
ancient languages,
along with “undying
fame” is “kill a
dragon” - Go figure!
One last point,
unrelated to the
above. Here is an
image of Odysseus
and the Sirens,
who are supposed
to be bird-women.
But that is no fun
to draw/paint.What artists want is nudity and if the
facts need to be changed then so be it.

11. Here are sirens as
straight nudes or
mermaids. Art that
sells better.