Underworld

Orpheus in the Underworld by jepoirrier

Underworld

In mythology the underworld variously refers to a place beneath the earth’s surface or under the sea, the land of the deceased or a hellish realm filled with demons.

The mythological underworld is usually separated from everyday reality by an expanse or an abyss.

Often the gates of the underworld are guarded by menacing creatures, such as snakes or the giant three-headed dog and underworld’s Lord of Death, Cerberus.

The legendary Greek Orpheus used his melodious lyre to try to liberate Eurydice from Cerberus. But not unlike Lot’s wife, Orpheus ignored a dire warning to not look back during the escape. And while casting a glance over his shoulder Orpheus lost Eurydice to the underworld forever.

In ancient Egypt the sun god Re (or Ra) was said to pass through the underworld on a nightly basis. David Leeming notes that he was attacked by his enemies, particularly Apep, but defended by Seth and other benevolent spirits who had passed into the afterlife.†

The Egyptian Osiris was taken to be the ruler of the underworld, being a sort of death and resurrection figure due to his dismemberment and subsequent reassembly.

A similar belief  to the Egyptian Re myth is expressed in India with the sun temple at Konark, essentially a chariot of 24 wheels, where the sun god  Surya begins the day as Brahma, enters midday as Siva, and spends the night as Visnu.

A 2003 film about vampires and werewolves is called Underworld and its sequel is Underworld: Evolution (2006).

Depth psychologists tend to link underworld myths with the idea of the unconscious.

» Abyss, Archetypal Image, Blessed Isles, Bowie (David),  Death and Resurrection, Demeter, Doors, Eleusinian Mysteries, Ereshkigal, Eurydice, Faeries, Fates, Furies, Han Solo, Heaven, Hell, Hendrix (Jimi), Hercules, Hero, Ishtar, Jedi, Jung (Carl Gustav), Kraken, Mesopotamia, Mistletoe, Odysseus, Persephone, Pisces, Shaman, Tammuz, World Tree

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† David Leeming, Oxford Companion to World Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 337.

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Blessed Isles, or Isles of the Blessed

“Corfu, Greek” by Marini via Flickr

Blessed Isles, or Isles of the Blessed – According to Hesiod, this is the afterlife paradise for the dead favored by the Greek gods.

Some believe the idea was influenced by optimistic Minoan beliefs. Previously in Greece the next world had been predominantly conceived of as Hades, a sort of gloomy underworld.

In Homer‘s epic verse the Elysian Plain is filled with supreme joy, located at the end of the world, aside the River Oceanus. In early times, only heroes blessed by the gods gained the immortality of Elysium. But for Hesiod, Elysium is for all blessed dead—as opposed to the cursed.

Pindar too believes that all the righteous on earth achieve this happy abode, while Plutarch clearly links the Blessed Isles to the Elysian Fields.

Where the air was never extreme, which for rain had a little silver dew, which of itself and without labour, bore all pleasant fruits to their happy dwellers, till it seemed to him that these could be no other than the Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields.¹

Elysian Fields by Carlos Schwabe, 1903 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For Vergil, Elysium is outlined in the Aeneid as an underworld place.

Plato sees it as a region where the good soul awaits its next incarnation. In the general poetic sense, Elysium or the Elysian fields refers to a place or mindset filled with wonder, lasting contentment and bliss.

Ptolemy mentions the Blessed Isles as reference points in his discussion about longitude. And right up to the Middle Ages they continued to figure in texts concerning the Prime Meridian.

Wikipedia lists related Isles, in several mythic frameworks, where the dead may live for an extended period or for eternity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortunate_Isles

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¹ Plutarch, Life of Sertorius, ch. viii., cited at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortunate_Isles.

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Cerberus

Cerberus by MattGrommes via Flickr

In ancient Greek and Roman myth Cerberus is a giant three-headed dog and Lord of Death who guards the gates to and from the underworld. As such, he prevents those who’ve crossed the River Styx¹ from making a return journey.

Cerberus was captured and chained by Hercules and brought to a higher region as one of the latter’s Twelve Labors. And Orpheus managed to outwit Cerberus and escape the bonds of hell by soothing the wretched dog to sleep with the music of his lyre.

He is depicted on ancient Greek coins, cameos, vases, paintings and temple sculptures. And he figures prominently in classical Western literature. More recently, he appears as a character in video games.

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¹ Styx is the boundary between the world of the living and the underworld (where souls are said to go in the afterlife). Sometimes ancient mourners placed a coin in the mouth of the deceased to pay the ferryman (named as Charon in the 6th century)  who’d take the soul across the river. See The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1999, p. 312, and Garland, Robert. “Underworld and Afterlife.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Oxford University Press. (, n.d.). Retrieved 15 Nov. 2012, from http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001/acref-9780195170726-e-1300

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The Doors

Mug shot of Jim Morrison, who had run-ins with the law on more than one occasion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Doors were a 1960s and early 70s rock band from Los Angeles, California, consisting of Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore and lead man Jim Morrison.

Morrison was one of the bad boys of rock who also had poetic substance, charisma and exceptional singing ability. The group charted several classic tunes. Light my Fire, Hello I love you, L.A. Woman, Riders on the Storm and recorded other songs with lasting influence, such as Break on Through, Love Street, The Spy, The End, Soul Kitchen and the live epic Celebration of the Lizard.

Morrison is also a recognized poet, and his song lyrics advocate an inner journey to the psychological underworld, urging fans to “break on through to the other side.”

Jim Morrison Memorial in Berlin-Baumschulenweg. The Memorial has been set up among other by a Berlin merchant in 2003 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Morrison apparently had a photographic memory. Biographers Danny Sugarman and Jerry Hopkins say that Morrison would ask his friends to open up and tell him the page number of any book in his library. Morrison would then apparently recite from memory all the words on that particular page.¹ If this story is true, it’s conceivable that Morrison was remote viewing and not necessarily reading from memory.

Like his sometimes melancholic (and depressing?) contemporary Jimi Hendrix, Morrison’s drug induced mysticism ended up in tragedy. He died at age 27 in his Paris apartment bathtub, surrounded by rumors of ongoing substance abuse. Despite his bad end, his music, personal philosophy and raw energy still inspires young and older fans to this day.

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¹ Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, No One Here Gets Out Alive, New York: Warner Books, 1980.

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Demons

Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves – Demon. Image uploaded by Gwen via Flickr

Most religious and mythological traditions attest to the reality of demons. For the most part, demons are regarded as dark, evil spiritual beings whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc on individuals and the world.

In Hinduism, demons appear in the Puranas as Rakshakas (evil beings capable of shape-shifting) and tramp souls. Also in Hinduism the, at one time, god-like asuras of the Vedas devolve into demonic spirit beings which, the mystic Sri Aurobindo says, try to place false and harmful ideas into the minds of impressionable, vulnerable human beings.

In Tibetan Buddhism, immediately after a person dies a priest reads the Tibetan Book of the Dead aloud over the dead body, instructing the departed soul how to avoid different spiritual lights and deceptions that demonic beings use to try to trick the deceased into falling into another earthly incarnation. And Mahayana Buddhism portrays many hells, each presided over by horrific entities

In China demons are thought to be able to inhabit dead bodies and haunt various places, both inside and out.

Demons in China… are capable of animating dead bodies, haunting cemeteries, cross roads, and the homes of relatives. Some live in Hades…others inhabit the air. Many are hungry ghosts, the spirits of those who have had no proper burial or who have no decendants to feed them sacrifices.¹

Traditional Roman Catholicism doesn’t envision the demon in terms of a psychoanalytic, physiological id or Jungian shadow archetype, as is fashionable in some circles today. Instead, traditional Catholicism makes no bones about the belief in demons. The Prayer Against Satan and The Rebellious Angels, published in 1961 by order of H. H. Pope Leo XIII refers to various “spirits of wickedness,” “diabolical legions” and “infernal invaders” that are to be driven away with the help of this solemn prayer.

Contemporary Catholicism, however, is incorporating secular and psychiatric perspectives on demons, but arguably in a clunky manner that seems to conform to ancient and medieval styles of analyzing issues. This shouldn’t be surprising as certain aspects of Catholic theological discourse borrow from Aristotelian and Thomist analytical categories and modes of analysis. And as history suggests, deeply entrenched patterns of thought and practice usually take time to be positively redirected.

In secular society alleged demons are often described as nothing more than a product of the imagination, hallucinations, an arrested or disturbed personality, mutated chromosomes, or the much debated idea of chemical imbalances. Along these lines the Catholic Catechism makes a sharp distinction between “the presence of the Evil One,” on the one hand, and current understandings of mental illness on the other:

The solemn exorcism, called “a major exorcism,” can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules established by the Church. Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus entrusted to his Church. Illness, especially psychological illness, is a very different matter; treating this is the concern of medical science. Therefore, before an exorcism is performed, it is important to ascertain that one is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness.²

In contrast to the arguably underdeveloped either/or perspective outlined above, a more productive and responsible approach would intelligently consider different perspectives — physiological, psychological, cultural, transpersonal and spiritual — using as many of the analytical tools that are available to us in the 21st century.

Having said that, we should also keep in mind the very real possibility that God could permit a fundamentally good and ‘well adjusted’ person to be afflicted by evil, as we find, for instance, in the Old Testament Book of Job.

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¹ S. G. F. Brandon, A Dictionary of Comparative Religion, 1971, p. 230.

² Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1673.

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Demeter

Leighton depicts Hermes helping Persephone to return to her mother Demeter after Zeus forced Hades to return Persepone. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Demeter was an influential mother and corn goddess with temples in virtually every ancient Greek city. She had a major temple at the town of Eleusis (about 10 miles from Athens). Her daughter by Zeus is Persephone or Kore (“the Girl”), who also personifies corn. Together, Demeter and Persephone are deities of agriculture and growth.

Demeter is usually depicted holding sheaves of corn. The oldest myth about Demeter is found in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which links her to the Eleusinian Mysteries. In this hymn Persephone/Kore is abducted by Hades to the underworld.

As the corn crop suffers in her daughter’s absence, Demeter searches for Persephone/Kore until Zeus decrees that she must spend one part of the year with Demeter and another part with Hades.

Hades…gave Persephone a pomegranate seed to eat, and because she had tasted food in the Underworld she was compelled to spend a third part of every year there, returning to earth in spring.¹

This is often cited as an example of how storytellers mythologize the natural cycles of seed-time, vegetation, harvest and the subsequent storage in underground containers. Demeter is also portrayed as sorrowful because of Persephone/Kore’s sad fate.

In Italy Demeter is often identified with Ceres.

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¹ Nicholas J. Richardson, Demeter in The Oxford Classical Dictionary © Oxford University Press 1996, 2000.

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Death and Resurrection

The Earliest fresco of the Virgin Mary, in the Catacomb of Priscilla from the middle of the 2nd century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Countless scholars, depth psychologists and writers point out that the motif of death and resurrection is found throughout world religion, mythology, literature and the arts.

The death may be symbolic, involving a hero who undergoes a psychological or societal ‘death’ by leaving everyday life for the underworld. He or she typically encounters unusual friends, foes, adventures and battles, only to return utterly transformed.

This kind of symbolic death and resurrection is championed by the depth psychiatrist C. G. Jung and also by the mythographer Joseph Campbell. But it need not be a single, big event. As a friend of mine said quite a few years ago, she’s been through several symbolic deaths and resurrections.

At the time I thought my friend just didn’t get it because I’d been through a pretty big change, which my ego told me was way more significant than what she was talking about. But I came to see that she was right. At least, she was right in that we can all go through many symbolic deaths and resurrections according to who we are and what we need so as to grow in life.

As Sonia Neale beautifully puts it from a Buddhist perspective, and in the context of leaving her therapist:

It is normal to grieve and mourn. This non-attachment is difficult because every breath of warm wind, every flower and tree, in fact almost everything reminds me of someone I love dearly and have to let go.  Even being alive reminds me of what I have lost.  But I now believe that when you lose something, it is replaced with something of equal value or better.¹

The mythic theme of death and resurrection also takes the form of an actual death, as we find in sacred accounts of the Hindu Siva and Kali, the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, the Greek Persephone and Demeter, as well as in the story of Jesus and The Virgin Mary.

We also find many accounts where archaic societies sacrificed human beings to appease their gods or spirits. And it was generally believed that the sacrificial victims were generously rewarded in the afterlife. Such practices were found in Greece, Rome, India, China, Celtic and Viking Europe as well as Mesoamerica.

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¹ Neale, S. (2011). Death and Resurrection Through Therapy. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 28, 2012, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/unplugged/2011/05/death-and-resurrection-through-therapy

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Eurydice

George Frederick Watts – Orpheus and Eurydice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eurydice is a female figure in Greek myth. Among variants, the best known Eurydice in Greek myth is a tree or water nymph and wife of Orpheus. When the god Aristaeus tried to rape her, she fled to escape his advances. While fleeing she was bitten by a poisonous snake, died within hours and descended to Hades.

Her husband Orpheus later journeyed to Hades hoping to rescue her. Orpheus used the musical beauty of his lyre to wrest Eurydice from the underworld’s Lord of Death, the giant three-headed dog Cerberus. But like Lot’s wife, and against a dire warning to not look behind while escaping, Orpheus cast a glance backward, losing Eurydice forever.

The name Eurydice first appears on pottery in the 4th century BCE.¹ Although possibly orally present for centuries, they myth of Orpheus’ descent into the underworld to rescue Eurydice was not fully written down until the  first century BCE, when Roman poets immortalized the tale through written verse.²

Plato criticizes Orpheus in his Symposium for trying to rescue Eurydice through music instead of sheer courage.³

In other variants of the myth Orpheus attempts to save Eurydice from Persephone. The scene of Orpheus attempting to rescue Eurydice is depicted in Neoclassical art, most notably by Nicolas Poussin.

Eurydice is also known as one of the daughters of Apollo.
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¹ Richard L. Hunter “Eurydice” The Oxford Classical Dictionary, © Oxford University Press 1996, 2000.

² Sarah Hitch “Orpheus and Eurydice” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. Michael Gagarin. © Oxford University Press 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press. Toronto Public Library. 22 May 2012 http://www.oxford-greecerome.com/entry?entry=t294.e907

³ Ibid.

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Ereshkigal

Statue c. 1792 – 1750 BC that represents an ancient Babylonian goddess, possibly Ishtar or Ereshkigal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ereshkigal is a Sumerian goddess and ruler of the underworld. Her sister is the heavenly Inanna/Ishtar. Her husband Nergal, an earth god scorched by the summer sun, forced her to share her power with him.

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Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries (Photo credit: certified su)

The Eleusinian Mysteries were Ancient Greek esoteric ceremonies (sometimes called the Eleusian Mysteries) held in honor of Demeter and Persephone.

In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (7^th century BCE) Demeter visits Eleusis, near Athens, to search for her daughter Persephone (or Kore) who’d been abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. Demeter creates the Eleusian mysteries to not only mark the event but to lead initiated human beings into a divine mystery that many suggest was undertaken in the hope of obtaining a favorable afterlife.

The mysteries were performed in a sacred hall, or telesterion, on a yearly basis at Eleusis, which is just outside of Athens. Initiation into the mysteries was popular among the Roman elite, with the exception of Nero, who refused to indulge in them.

Because the Eleusinian mysteries were a secretive mystery cult, little information survives. But we do know that initiates underwent three distinct stages, lasting about two years.

Shrines near Eleusis (Photo credit: Cornell University Library)

The first stage involved purification rites. Again, due to their secret nature not too much is known but these rites apparently had something to do with a symbolic death and rebirth. The final stage might have resulted in a spiritual awakening, perhaps catalyzed by a mystical revelation in combination with other factors.

From 395 CE onward, the telesterion was no longer used and the mysteries were abandoned. In 1924 a statue of Persephone was uncovered at Eleusis, said to date back to 500 BCE.

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