A Comparative Study of Afterlife in Homer's & Virgil's Epics

This essay explores the Greek and Roman perceptions of the afterlife as depicted in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid. It analyzes the interactions of key characters with the dead, highlighting differences and similarities in beliefs about death and the underworld. While Homer's epics significantly influenced Greek religious beliefs, Virgil's Aeneid reflected existing Roman beliefs more than it shaped them. The essay discusses the importance of proper burial rituals in both cultures and the universal human desire to connect with deceased loved ones. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

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AFTERLIFE IN GREEK AND ROMAN EPICS
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1AFTERLIFE IN GREEK AND ROMAN EPICS
The aim of this paper is to discuss the Greek and roman perceptions of afterlife in the
literature of Homer to Virgil. It will analyses Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid in
which there is a specific interest grown in the interactions of Achilles, Odysseus and Aeneas with
their beloved dead. These two authors of the greatest epics have provided historical evidences of
belief systems and understanding of people regarding death in the mid eighth century BC for the
Greeks and later part of the first century BC for the Romans. Homer had significantly influenced
the religious beliefs of the Greeks but Virgil did not do the same for the Romans. This paper will
analyse how the definition and understanding of deaths have been changed with time.
Homer's Odyssey states that the death is the way of mortals to reach the afterlife. The
soul becomes ready to leave the flesh and bones and fly away like the dreams. This is the reason
why the people are always fascinated about the death and after life. In order to understand the
process why and how the Odyssey by Homer and Aeneid by Virgil had affected the respective
societies. The interactions of the central characters both dead as well as alive can be effective to
understand this stand or belief system of the contemporary people. This is due to the fact that
their actions had reflected the beliefs of their contemporary society (McNamara 2017). It is here
important to note that Homer’s epic had a great and far reaching effect on the beliefs and religion
of the contemporary Greeks and these beliefs are also relate to their understanding of death.
Along with these, the epics by homer also had manipulated the hero cult as well as the burial
methods. Similarly, the religious beliefs of the Romans are perfectly represented in the Aeneid
but the Homeric view of underworld was no similar with that of the Virgil’s.
Greek idea of death or underworld is somehow related to the mortality of the people. This
description is somewhat more typical than those of the romans. In the Greek epics of Homer, the
idea that the death will come for everyone is predominant. It is the hades where all the virtuous

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as well as sinners will be led to. However, it is important to note that the Iliad’s description of
afterlife is far way from the Greek mystery cults especially the Eleusinian Mysteries (Blanshard
2018). This particular cult was believed in the eighth century BC Greece where he believers used
to attached themselves to some of the gods for salvation so that they do not face the afterlife. On
the contrary, the epics by homer assign with the belief that people will definoley face some
punishment or special treatment afterlife for their actions (Mills 2015). This reveals that homer
had no direct connection with the Greek mystery cults or Eleusinian Mysteries but their
importance is not be noted in the parts of both Iliad as well as the Odyssey.
As mentioned before that homer’s epics had a direct effect and impression on the beliefs
of the contemporary people but it is not in the case of Aeneid where the religious beliefs of the
romans had more an effect on the writings of Virgil. Summers works head symbols insurance on
the ideas of life after death and what happen to the souls after death. The representation of the
Psukhe which is the mirror image of death became the only and ordinary view of death. It is
Homer who first depicted the spirit of the dead to have a transparent image of the bodies. On the
contrary, the roman ideas of afterlife directly reject the Greek imagination of afterlife and their
process of intimation with the dead does not bear similarities with that of the Greeks (Maclennan
2016). Despite of these dissimilarities and rejection of the idea of afterlife, in the aspect of how
the dead s or the afterlife can affect the living is however similar to the ideas of the Greeks. The
roman belief system relates to tha fact that the spirits can aid their descendants but were spiteful
if they were neglected. This is the reason why the cult of worshipping the spirits were
predominate which is later captured in the writings of Virgil.
According to most of the critics, the description of afterlife in Virgil’s Aeneid, is a
mimicking idea of the Homeric expression and imagination of the representation of afterlife or

3AFTERLIFE IN GREEK AND ROMAN EPICS
death. It is clear that Virgil was quite fascinated with the rendition of Hoer about the afterlife
where I Homer it is seen that the underworld is a tangible place and the living men with
supernatural power can reach their ad return safely (McNamara 2016). On the contrary, Virgil’s
after life is also tangible like that of Homers but this remains hidden for the average mortals.
This tangible underworld of Homer is having different segments for different deceased. For
example, in Iliad, Manelaos was doomed to spend the eternity in the Elysian Fields which is
situated at the end of the underworld and the rest of the underworld is paradise where the
privileged spirits will live (Emonds 2015). Similarly, in the Odyssey, the negative characters like
Sisyphus, Tityos and Tantalos will live in that part of the underworld where they will be
continuously tortured and this punishment will be carried over to death. The death description of
this underworld represented in the Iliad has detailed the description of the afterlife, that the
Greeks has a geographical and graphic understating of the world of dead (Blanshard 2018).
On the other hand, the romans did not believe in the afterlife what Virgil in his Aeneid
had depicted. However, the romans though never followed the them religiously, but they had a
huge variety of rituals and ancestral festivals which they observed. According to the scholars like
(Blanshard 2018), these ancestral ritual for the dead were quite complicated and do not have any
similarity with that of the description of Homer. This text therefore, gave no effect on the
religious beliefs of the romans. The roman beliefs for the welfare of the dead is represented
through two major festivals namely Parentalia and Lemuria. The first one aims to honor the
welfare of the dead parents for ten days when there will be no temples open and no marriages be
arranged. Lemuria on the other hand the festival of worshiping the deceased family members.
These festivals are originated from the idea that the spirits live in a semi-existence state near the
tomb. This is the reason why the Aeneid mentions about the custom of keeping meal in the tomb

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so that the spirits can get proper nourishment. These customs are not present on the Greek idea of
afterlife. These Roman festivals depict that they are concerned to satisfy the dead in any way.
However, it is clear that in the writings of the both Homer and Virgil, the both Greeks as
well as Romans had concerning ritualistic behaviors surrounding deaths. For instance, in each of
the three epics, the importance of proper burial has been a theme. In every case, the peace of soul
has been infringed and the problem arises if the dead asked for proper burial (Vanolo 2016). In
all of these epics, the souls seem to urge for proper burial and this is found in Aeneid when
Aeneas’ dead companions Palinurus urges to be properly buried so that he can rest in a quiet
place. In both the cultures, the burial meant to be cremated or for than matter cremation of at
least one bone representing the whole body (Almond 2016). This is believed to be helping the
dead to enter the underworld as quickly as possible. In the book 23 of Iliad, Patroklus returns to
Achilles to ask him to give the rite of fire so that he can entre the gate of Hades. The main idea
relates to the fact that the dead needs to be buried or cremated properly so that they do not
reattune to the earth again (Allen 2018). The souls whose body is not properly cremated seen to
be cursed and therefore, these are convinced to take revenge to the livings. In Homer’s Odyssey,
the king when travels to the underworld, finds his companion Elpenor who was then unburied
and urges him not to go unwept and unburied as he will be a god’s curse for him.
Another aspect of development of the picture of after world in both Iliad, odyssey and
Aeneid canter round the factor of touching the spirits or dead. In every epic of both Homer and
Virgil, one can find the similar incident of inability to touch the spirits. In Odyssey, the king
Odysseus tries to touch and hold the spirit of his mother but she flew out like dreams or a
shadow. In Aeneid also, Aeneas tries to embrace his dead father and place his hands ion his
father’s neck but escapes the useless grasp (Williamson 2018). These instances reveal the fact

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that the desire to meet the beloved one after death was the desire in the minds of the people for
all the time (Allen 2018). This desire to hold their hands, embrace them for the last time were
same for both the Geeks as well as Roman. This desire to reach out to the dead in the afterlife
affected the minds of the people and his concept is carried over ages (Allen 2018). These
passages where the readers do not find any dissimilarity among Homer and Virgil, signify the
fact that the people wanted to understand the death better for ages and within to fulfil their wish.
These are their expression regarding death or after life.
The Greeks were highly convinced with the Homeric description of death and after life.
The cremation sites of Attica and Cyprus were filled with the evidences of great cremation like
which described in Iliad. On the contrary, the roman were not so convinced with Virgil
religiously but took it in the political aspect where Augustus and Julius Caesar are considered to
be the descendant of Venus, the mother of Aeneid. Moreover, Virgil’s assessment of Augustus
Ceaser’s rule in the golden age was considered politically thus, Aeneid was not a religious text
like Iliad but defined many aspects detailing beliefs of the contemporary period.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the concept of the life after death is not same in the
epics of Homer and Virgil which belonged to the different countries and different religious
beliefs. However, there are some instances that the writing of Virgil was influenced by that of
Homer as the basic idea of spirit and death are same and how these are affecting the living earth
is quite similar in the texts of both these writers. By detailing the aspects of perfect rituals for the
dead for example, cremation and mourning rituals over the dead persons in the texts, it has been
understood that the desire to meet the beloved one after death was the desire in the minds of the
people for all the time. This desire to hold their hands, embrace them for the last time were same
for both the Geeks as well as Roman. However, with time the concepts of after life has changed

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among the people of both these nations but it is clear that Homer’s texts, both Iliad as well as
Odyssey had a greater impact on the religious beliefs of the Greeks but the romans were not so
vey convinced with the thoughts and imagination of that of Virgil. However, has Homeric views
had dominated the religion or customs associated to the dead among the Greeks, the Romans
accepted Virgil to be convincing for politics. It is regardless to state that both these epics had a
complicated yet long lasting effect on the minds of the people.

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Allen, Molly Evangeline. "1 Visualizing the afterlife in Classical Athens." Imagining the
Afterlife in the Ancient World (2018).
Almond, Philip C. Afterlife: A History of Life After Death. IB Tauris, 2016. Almond, P.C., 2016.
Blanshard, Alastair JL. "Afterlife (Modern Era)." The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes (2018):
453.
Emonds III, Radcliffe. "Imagining the Afterlife in Greek Religion." (2015): 551.
Harrisson, Juliette, ed. Imagining the Afterlife in the Ancient World. Routledge, 2018. Harrisson,
J. ed., 2018.
Maclennan, Keith. Virgil: Aeneid VI. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
McNamara, Charles Joseph. "Quintilian's Theory of Certainty and Its Afterlife in Early Modern
Italy." PhD diss., Columbia University, 2016.
McNamara, Charles. "Report from the Afterlife." Commonweal144, no. 1 (2017): 32.
Mills, Clayton. "On Death and the Afterlife: Resurrecting the Christian Doctrine of Last Things."
PhD diss., 2015.
Putnam, Michael CJ. "Virgil and the Achilles of Catullus." Wordplay and Powerplay in Latin
Poetry 36 (2016): 151. Putnam, M.C., 2016
Vanolo, Alberto. "Exploring the afterlife: Relational spaces, absent presences, and three fictional
vignettes." Space and Culture 19, no. 2 (2016): 192-201.

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Williamson, Paul R. Death and the Afterlife: Biblical Perspectives on Ultimate Questions. Vol.
44. InterVarsity Press, 2018. Williamson, P.R., 2018