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Demeter, Persephone, and the
Afterlife
Wu Shiyu
奥林匹亚山的十二主神
Zeus (Jupiter)
Hera (Juno)
Poseidon (Neptune)
Demeter（Ceres）
Apollo
Athena (Minerva)
Artemis (Diana)
Hestia(Vesta)
Ares (Mars)
Aphrodite (Venus)
Hephaestus (Vulcan)
Hades
Hermes (Mercury)
The Universe
Lord of the Underworld
Lived apart
The House of Hades (Tartaros)
The gloomy land of the dead
The River of Styx
Hermes (guide), Charon (Ferryman)
Shadow, witless (Homeric epic)
Isle of the Blessed
Hades
Hades seldom leaves
Tartaros;
Hades seizes
Persephone
Persephone
The daughter of Zeus
and the harvest goddess
Demeter (P.19)
Olympians: Demeter (德墨忒尔 )
The goddess of
Grain and agriculture
Video
Daughter
Zeus and Demeter
mated once and
produced a daughter
Persephone
Persephone’s Abduction
Hades seizes Persephone
picking flowers in a field
Hades takes her down to
the Tartaros with him to be
his bride.
With Zeus’s permission,
Hades goes out of the
Underworld;
Video (Hades)
Famine by Demeter
Sad
Not know what happened
to her daughter
Wanders, looking for
Causing famine
No grain grow
Humanity death (starve)
Zeus order Hades
Return Persephone
permanently
Persephone ate a seed
of pomegranate
Can’t leave Tartaros
permanently
One-third of the year in
Hades
Two-thirds of the year
with her mother
Implications
Demeter’s search for Persephone tells us:
1.Actual Greek marriage practices (contract);
2. Persephone marries her own uncle;
3. Marriage in Athens was “patrilocal.”
4. Human experience of death and separation.
Olympians can’t or don’t go to Tartaros (Hermes,
Hades)
(God of the sun), Demeter like a human mother
Zeus not pitied for man (gods’ attitude to humans).
Demeter at Eleusis
Demeter visits Eleusis, near Athens:
Disguised as an old woman
Four daughters of Metaneira
Late born and desired baby bro
Demeter, nanny the baby brother
Demophoon
Cherished son
Great gifts and great honor
Demeter make him immortal
Anointing, Fireplace, night
Ambrosia (burning)
Metaneira observes, horrified
Crazed old woman
Burning her baby
Demeter angry
Tosses on ground
A bargain with zeus
A window into the nature of the gods:
First, using Demophoon substitute (why a boy?).
Second, immortalize not work. fixed.
Third, “Lord of All”, “Receiver of all”, a balance
Fourth, gods unconcern with human emotions
Demeter says to the mother:
Freudian Way: A Wish-fulfillment fantasy
Could “unmarry” their daughter
Gets Persephone back for two-thirds of the year
All human beings wish death could be reversed.
Persephone comes back from the land of the
dead (death is reversed)
The Afterlife
In surviving Greek literature, views of the afterlife are
considered less pleasant.
Odyssey (Homer): place of dim, shadowy existence,
much less desirable
Ghost (eidolon): image (not a person but an image); a
shadowy image
Different from Christian or Islamic view
Psyche (soul): breadth, visibly leaves the body at death
Odyssey : Witless, now knowing or recognizing
themselves (blood)
No sense: if you were an evil person in this life,
you are going to be punished in Tartaros.
A few wrongdoers punished in Tartaros.
The story of Tantalos.
The story of Tantalos
The story of Tantalos
The story of Tantalos
The story of Tantalos
The story of Tantalos
Tantalos: not believe
Invited god to a feast
Cooked his own son
God recognized
Demeter ate a shoulder
Punishment in the underworld
Neck (water, fruit)
Eternally hungry
Tantalize someone
Other sinners
Titaios tried to rape Leto
Sisyphus (430)
A Most Famous story on Afterlife
Orpheus, greatest poet
His poetry, singing, beatiful
Charm animals, stone, trees
歌者俄耳浦斯（orpheus）
祖父是apollo，母亲
是诗神。
妻子是Eurydice
Orpheus and Eurydice
Eurydice died in the wedding
Orpheus journeyed to Underworld
Lyre, poetry, sang so beautifully
Hades and Persephone agreed
Not look back
Looked back
Eurydice faded back into Tartaros
Really dead
Orphism (Orpheus’ teaching)
Greek view
Life in this world is what counts and is
desirable, and life as a disincarnated spirit is
seen as only as a very poor substitute for life in
the world.
This life is the only life worth having, but it is
short, and what comes after it is less valuable
than this life itself.
所有这些故事，都体现了古希腊神话的深刻。
思考问题
1.你认为Hades把Persephone绑架到Tartaros说
明了古希腊世界的一些什么风俗？
2.迄今所讲述的古希腊的相关神话，你对哪一个
印象最深刻？为什么？
3.参看另一个班的古希腊神话PPT，阅读相关故
事。
Hermes
(shunned) boundary
A god of boundaries
and of exchange
Charon
A formidable old man
Ugly, squalid
Ensure qualified
Into chains
Heracles
Heracles, Theseus,
Orpheus
The World of Hades