Compare And Contrast Accounts Of The After Life By Homer, Plato, And Vergil

MYTHOLOGYHecate : a divinity of the Underworld and companion of Perseph 1 , is c each(prenominal)ed the queen regnant of iniquity and the divinity fudgedess of the cross-roads her troika faces atomic number 18 turned towards as homosexualy directions , and her divulge was shrieked at iniquity at the cross-roads of cities Maenads : These ar the pursual of Dionysus , the graven image of wine-colored . They slobber his symbol , the thyrsos , a provide that is cr avowed with common ivy , and wear panther skins , an animal that he get laids for its excitability . The Maenads excessively drape snakes everyplace their hair to hark hold up that genus genus genus genus Zeus cr proclaimed Dionysus with snakes after he let him be give remote of his thigh Satyrs : Some stories describe them as att final stageants on Di onysus , the theology of wine . a nonher(prenominal) stories place these were savages who lived on sure islands , and had deck break through suit as spacious as horse tails . When satyrs caught sight of a venture , they would to it , crying aloud , and assaulting the wowork extract pan mutilate : The idol of haywire nature . He was born with a beard , terrifying his nurse . From this and similar features , such as his goat-feet , he is said to be the god of irrational terrors (panicPan equalwise diddle a flute or aim of pipes , competing with Apollo s lyre though non bettering that god makeland : She had witness so droll that work force worshiped her Aphrodite , out of jealousy , sent concupiscence to unsex her expire in love with a unworthy man . brain was carried by the move up to a castle , w here sexual desire secretly visited her whatever night . Psyche managed to mold that Eros was her lover , and Psyche suffered Aphrodite 92s wrath . sa ve after complications , the lovers were rej! oined , and Psyche was made perpetual Mythology Page Arachne : She was famous for her skill in weaving , and fifty-fiftytually challenged the goddess A indeeda to a contest . The goddess became so enraged that she turned the char into a spider genus A paste : An different create for genus A becau cop A thereforea : The goddess of soundness , she was non born in each conventional way alternatively , Zeus suffered a c are so terrible that he finally Hephaestus , the god of the metalworker , to smash him on the power point with a hammer . A consequentlya burst forth full counterfeited . She is alike the patron goddess of capital of Greece Artemis : the goddess of the hunt . When the gl atomic number 18enics killed adept of her scared stags on their way to troy weight , she turned the winds against them and appointive that they could cross on exclusively if Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Ipheginia to her . By obeying this didactics , Agamemnon incurred the w rath of his married woman , Clytemnestra Apollo : The god of the sun , who every twenty-four hours drives his flaming transport across the sky . He is excessively the god of plagues , which he delivers with his bow , which is menti whizd in the initiative of AlcestisHermes : The courier of the gods , who flies around on his winged sandals . He is also the god of the kin , so that virtually every madhouseenic house had a statue of Hermes in the first place which they made small sacrificesAphrodite : The goddess of steady . Paris chose her as the nearly beautiful of the goddesses , setting the epitomise for the trojan horse contend Dionysus : The god of wine , ecstacy , and savagery . He is whizz of the lesser gods , because his pose was a mortal , still though he is a give-and- vex of Zeus Demeter : The distinguish goddess , the goddess of the harvest . When her daughter Proserpine was kidnaped and fetchn into the underworld , she went into such fits of heart crumble that the globe began to wither . in! the long run , the gods restore her daughter to her , for at least a part of the twelvemonth . But because Proserpine had eaten in the pits , she is required to present in that pry several months of to from severally matchless one year , and during that time , Demeter mourns again and the background endures its barren eon Hades : The lord of the underworld , the god of demolition and repulsiveness . later the overthrow of Cronus , he and his br differents , Poseidon and Zeus , drew practically , and he lost the nirvanas and the seas in the draw . He is forever concerned with increa sineg his subjects , so that the stagnant earth-closetnister never leave his solid ground . He is also the god of wealth , hence the word 93plutocracy 94 dominion by a wealthy elite1 .Virgil gives the closely complete of the futurity , in the business leaderdom of Dis . Led by the Sibyl of Cumae , Aeneas enters Dis and finds the River Acheron . hither , Charon ferries the inanimate , although he refuses to take those whose corpses had non been given proper burial . ON the other side of this river , Aeneas hears the wailing of excruciation nouss as inspirit latterly suddenly stand before Minos for judgmentAeneas sees the field of heroes of the Trojan fight , and passes the grim fortress where Rhadamanthus metes out judgments upon the worst sinners Finally , Aeneas and the Sibyl seeded player to the Blessed Groves , where the true(p) enjoy peace and drag . Here Aeneas sees his father , who explains how the dead are dispersed in Dis and how faithful psyches can fifty-fiftytually area the Fields of triumph . He consequently explains what Aeneas 92 lineage depart do in Italy . From his posterity , Romulus entrust found Rome , Ascanius line will explicate Caesar , and Rome will r from each one a favourable era of world subordination . Aeneas now understands why he is in Italy and returns to the surface world ready to carry o nVirgil 92s Dis represents a super developed reconc! ilement of classical theology , which was windlessness in development at the time he wrote . In a world of temperamental and often arbitrary gods , Virgil 92s future gives judgments base on the jurist of one 92s breedingtime . This fantasy parallels rescuerian and Judaic tradition that would develop several centuries later . In this passage , Virgil drew on classical Orphic mysteries . Orpheus , the 93priest of Thrace 94 is in the Blessed GrovesOrphism was also a source for Plato 92s turn overs of the after breedingRhadamanthus judgments of souls resembles the rescuerian subterfuge of judgment : those who do not repent on universe are doomed in Hell . A reference book difference is the absence of any heaven . All souls go to Dis the peachy souls merely get better portions within this hell . Arguably , this scheme fits Christian theology , which postulated that before Christ 92s death and resurrection , all souls were relegated to Hell , so that even the souls of the pure(a) were in Hell until Christ resurrectionNotably , in this underworld , of the gods that rule on the flat coat appear to gain any passage of armsfront . Radamanthus , Minos , and even Charon , rule with minimal interference from deities that hold sway aboveIn battle cry 11 , of the Odyssey , Odysseus steers his ship to the River of Ocean , and is able to reach the drab metropolis of the Cimmereans . Here he take ons Circe 92s instructions to commit the souls of the dead Notably , he does not so frequently go into the underworld as he stands at one of its portals where the spirit up of the dead come to himHis comrade Elpenor begs Odysseus to return to Circe 92s island to his bole a proper burial . Clearly Elpenor is suffering , nevertheless target does not give us any specifics well-nigh this . The Theban prophet Tiresias reveals that Poseidon is punishing the Achaeans for projection screening Polyphemus , and warns Odysseus of his fate , that he will reach home to reclaim Penelope from the scu! mmy suitors , and then make virtually other voyage to appease Poseidon . He also warns Odysseus not to touch the flocks of the SunOdysseus calls forth other spirits . He intercommunicates with his mother Anticleia , who tells him of contests in Ithaca and of how she died of grief wait for him . He then checks the spirits of various famous men and heroes and hears the stories of their lives and deaths . Agamemnon tells him of his kill by Clytemnestra . Achilles wants to drive in well-nigh his countersign , Neoptolemus . Odysseus then tries to speak to Ajax , who killed himself after a contest with Odysseus , and Ajax slips taciturnly away . He sees Heracles , Minos , Orion , and others , and witnesses the penaltys of Sisyphus and Tantalus . Odysseus soon finds himself mobbed by souls inquire of relatives in the world above , and becomes frightened , runs back to his ship , and instanter sails awayThese scenes show the reader a range of apologueologic lives . bel l ringer 92s audience would open kn stimulate the stories of these figures . By juxtaposing Odysseus 92s wanderings against the woes of these hunch overn figures home run broadens his epic and entrenches his hero in his culture 92s fableology . still that he is allowed to enter Hades shows that Odysseus has a transcendent statusOdysseus 92s confabulation with Achilles reveals a nuanced view of warfare and jubilate . Achilles declares , 93I 92d rather break ones back on earth for another man / than rule visual smack here over all the breathless dead 94 This alludes to Achilles plight , mentioned in the Iliad he had to pick mingled with glory in battle dying untested or a long uneventful life . The Iliad celebrates the glory of warfare squareheartedly endorsing Achilles 92 filling of glory over long life But Achilles 92 sorrow in the Odyssey warns against the ethic of glory This change in Achilles from one poem to the other is understandable We have seen wi th Odysseus that the Odyssey tends to focus on charac! ters 92 inner lives . nonetheless Achilles doesn 92t wholly shun the idea of glory . Though he turns away some(prenominal)what from his warrior ethos , he still rejoices to hear that his discussion has become a great warriorAppearing near the mid-point of the epic , this element connects the poem 92s various settings . Anticleia recalls Ithaca . Agamemnon and Achilles echo troy weight . Elpenor died on Circe 92s island , recalling Odysseus 92s neighboring(a) responsibilities to his crew . And all of this appears in a recounting ta pansy place in the palace of the PhaeaciansNotably , this is a slew of the underworld that encompasses every soul . at that place is no 93better Place 94 to which the virtuous will be elevated , single a world of darkness never brightened by the son , where the best and the worst seem to merit equal treatmentIn script X of The body politic , Socrates presents his final argument in respect of judge ground on the myth of Er . He chal lenges to the rewards which the and will receive in the afterlife . ensure to the myth , a warrior named Er was killed in battle , exclusively did not actually die . He went to heaven , and had to fall out everything that happened there , and then was sent back to the earth to fib on his voyage . He observes a governance which rewarded celibacy , particularly firmness . People are tending(p) metre years , in either in heaven as a reward , or in Hell as punishment for the deeds preformed during the earthly life . They then experience in a common area where each soul chooses its next life , either animal or gentle . The life that they choose determines whether they are rewarded or punish in the next cycle . Only those who were philosophic spot bouncy learn the trick of how to chose a just life . Odysseus manages this by choosing to be reborn as a hurtle . Everyone else hurtles in the midst of happiness and chastening with every cycleThis Er myth , with its a ppeal to reward and punishment , represents an argume! nt establish on motivations Plato had brush aside earlier in The Republic . Glaucon and Adeimantus had specifically asked him to praise justice without appealing to these circumstanceors . It seems surprising that he reverts to it at the end of the agree . Bloom suggests that the inclusion of this myth is connected to the distinction between philosophic rightfulness and civil legality . Philosophical virtue is the flesh of virtue the philosopher possesses , and this kind of virtue differs from the virtue of the typical citizen . Arguably Plato had shown only that philosophical virtue is worthy in itself . He had not shown that the goodness of civic virtue . Because Glaucon and Adeimantus were not capable of philosophical virtue , Plato needed to give them a reason to pursue the virtue that they could achieve . The thousand year cycles of reward and punishment that follow just and unjust lives is think to philosophical virtueThe Er myth shows why philosophy is require d . Civic virtues is inadequate by itself . Only philosophers know how to choose the right newfound life , because only they understand the soul and understand what makes life good or bad . Other souls , wanting such apprehensiveness , can only take a chance , so that they flip-flop endlessly fluctuating between good lives and misery . Because every soul moldiness choose its own life , each person is entirely responsibility for his own justice and injustice . A person chooses injustice out of ignorance of what makes is just and what is unjust . Mankind 92s only true sin then is ignorance , and philosophy the only redemptionThis is the least developed of the ternary lay down , and partly this reflects the nature of The Republic . It is a philosophical treatise although it is presented in the form of a multi-character dialogue . By lineage , The Odyssey and The Aeneid are epic poems , aimed primarily at entertainment rather than philosophical instructionThis view of the underworld is also the only one of the three that all! ows for a soul to eventually rise from Hell . After a thousand years the soul chooses a new life 2 .In umteen ways , The Bacchae is a black story . Dionysus was conceived through the union of his mother , Semele , with Zeus . schooling that Semele was pregnant , her family did not believe that Zeus had fathered the child , and impeach Semele of lying to cover up a love affair . When Semele was struck by lightning , her family took it as a signal of reverent retri providedion , and proof that the child was merely the product of a human union , They also fancied that the child died with Semele . But the unborn Dionysus had been spirited away , and now grown he has come back , determined to land vengeance on his mother 92s family for their failure to believe in the divinity of his predilection He has excited the women of Thebes , who are carrying on in wild bacchanalHe now moves to destroy Pentheus , who is in fact his own cousin , the son of his mother 92s sister . Dio nysus entices Pentheus to dress as a woman and to go into the wilderness to extend to watch over the women as carry on their revelries . Once there , Dionysus helps Pentheus climb to the top of a tree . He then betrays him . He then lets the women see him They attack Pentheus , with Agave , Pentheus own mother , bowelless off his head and returning to the urban center with this prize impaled on a stickThere is a gruesome personal acknowledgment line between the loving God of Christianity and this malevolent idol . Dionysus is peevish , angered that his divinity has not been recognized and real by his family and his urban center . But this is his first mooring to the urban center , and the Thebans have only heard about his feasts . just , he is a god of things that need to be held in check : wine , revelry , ecstacy , and savagery , characteristics that can be summed up in a single and singularly un- classical word immoderationArguably , Dionysus does precisely what inebriant does : he brings out the vague tend! encies in its users , and modern societies , conscious of the damage these tendencies can solve on people , sets certain restrictions on the use of alcoholic beverage . Dionysus obviously feels that his revelers essential learn of the need for moderation for themselves .

He does nothing to warn them of the dangers that they pretend through their revelries , and he seems to take a particular interest in taking good of Pentheus 92 youth , inexperience , and brashnessIn galore(postnominal) ways , Pentheus and Dionysus present arctic opposites in this play , although no pair of these opposites can completely e xplain this play . and then , one lesson the play offers is that any effort to reduce it to a simple binary view is inadequate . There are sets of many opposing forces here : rationality versus irrationality , Hellenic versus the foreign , finish versus the wilderness , with Pentheus and Dionysus embodying the opposing forcesWisdom is a call aspect of this drama . end-to-end the play , there are wisdom figures : the old blind seer Tiresias , Cadmus the aged patriarch the Maenads of Thebes caught up in their possession , and finally Dionysus himself possessed of a certain kind of worshipful wisdom . Yet each of these figures has limitations , able to offer some insight , but each denied full understanding . activate of what the play teaches is an awareness of limitationsIn this opine , even the gods have limitations to their wisdom , as Dionysus fully illustrates . He humiliates Pentheus , and finding this is not fair to middling to sate his desires , he has him r emove and ripped to shreds , with his own mother boi! sterous his head off and deliverance it back to the city as a trophy . There is a arduous if pricy wisdom to be gained from this suffering , and clearly it is entirely beyond Dionysus 92 ability to grasp this form of wisdomAlso this a play about reckless king . Pentheus goes beyond the bounds of , bandaging as a woman so that he can on the women 92s revelries . In doing this , he shows a failure to understand the indispensable and his place in it . He is uppity , impatient , boss around , and crude . He is lumpish about the piety that the Maenads have discovered . Yet if Pentheus is excessive in wanting to watch the revelries , we moldiness ask if Dionysus is not also excessive in the bloody revenge he exacts from Pentheus and AgaveDionysus infects the play with a sense of the sinister . numerous of his followers are not local residents they are Asians , 93the other 94 the exotic , the unknown . Like them , he is new and unfamiliar . He is all of the things tha t Pentheus wants to reject or ignore . Pentheus insisting on restoring , opposes any worship of Dionysus more often than not because he cannot comprehend it , near notably failing to see the connection between himself and what Dionysus represents . At the same time , quite of simply leaving the bacchanalia alone , he tries to exemplification it illicitly by dressing as a womanDionysus also represents virtually everything that the staid Greek held dear and necessary to a sound social . Dionysus gives the women of Thebes ecclesiastic powers in their ecstatic state . This threatens the social , which Pentheus tries to preserve , an reign by males , while Dionysus seems to be the embodiment of chaos , barbarism androgyny , and unbounded female freedom . Male domination was very untold a part of Greek civilization . By endowing the Maenads with supernatural powers and having them break away from their normal national chores Dionysus came close to attacking the derrier e of Hellenic civilization . Pentheus is terrified ! but fascinated by this triumph of women over menIn the end , there is a profound pessimism about this play . Pentheus has not really through bountiful to show his divinity so as to offer the men of Thebes a reasonable presentation that he is divine . He exacts a terrible punishment on them for not well-educated what they could not be pass judgment to know . With cunning and skill , he plays on the faults of young Pentheus leading him to his death . His punishment of Agave seems even more than unfair . She has not only lost her son , she has been the unintended means by which he has met his death , and she now must live out her life in the knowledge that she returned to the city bearing his head as a trophy Where is the haunt ? Where can the virtuous Greek bet to demand that Dionysus be made to decide for his excesses ? Nowhere . Part of what this play teaches is that the god of excess can have his excesses while mortals must eer guard against them 3 .The Greek ant hropomorphic gods and goddesses were a force for good A great many examples from Greek lit show that the Greeks matt-up that their lives were interlinked with the lives of their gods and goddesses , and they openly invoked the gods in their belles-lettres . Homer begins The Iliad with the words , 93Sing , Goddess 94 and The Odyssey with 93Tell me , oh , ponder 94In their play , an invocation of the gods is almost a set opening for their dramas . The Bacchae begins with Dionysus appearing to explain his origin and to reveal that has come to vie with Pentheus , who refuses to remark him . At the beginning of Andromeche , Andromeche appears before the temple of Thetis , the divine mother of Achilles . The Agamemnon opens with the watchman , alone on the roof of the palace of his king praying to the gods that some end be brought to the endless labor of watching in the night . In Antigone , Antigone insists that her brother must be buried with due honor because this is som ething that the gods overleap , and their command ov! errides any decree that the mortal king Creon , might set down . Suppliants begins with a cry to the gods Oedipus Rex begins with Oedipus demanding to know why the chorus are assembled , and the Priest replying that they have come to plead with the gods to know why a plague has move on their city . Alcestis presents the most open invocation of the gods as Apollo and Death meet together before the palace of Admetus , king on ThessalyOn another level , the plays were all performed at the festival of Dionysus , and by all indications , this festival with its offerings of plays specifically compose for these performances was one of the highlights of the life of capital of Greece and other cities . They built theaters to hold audiences of 15 ,000 , which would have amounted to a huge portion of the free citizenship of the city-state , and position the commissioning of plays written for each festivalThese and many other works can be cited for the idea that the Greeks believed in th eir anthropomorphic gods , cosmos very much like themselves in their feeling , emotions and reactions . Zeus is the king of the gods but often rules over a ruly realm . He looks down on the earth , and openly lusts after the some of the mortals below , In the form of a bull he seduces Europa . In the form of a gargantuan swan , he attacks Leda . Hera the queen of the gods , is a jealous married person , and many of the great tales of Greek lore are based on her rage over her husband 92s dalliances with mortals . The Trojan War comes about when Paris is asked to decide who is should receive the apple impel into an particular(a) wedding feast by Eris , the goddess of discord . Offered bribes of power and wisdom by Hera and Athena , he rejects these in choose of the empower that will bring about the doom of his city of Troy : he agrees to give the apple to Aphrodite in return for the most beautiful woman on earth , Helen of TroyMany of the go examples of Greek architectu re are their temples and structures such as the Parth! enon and the whole Acropolis speak to the aesthetic brilliance of Greek work . Many of the most notable and beautiful modern public buildings and monuments are done in the style of Greek architectureFrom a spiritual point of view , we now dismiss Zeus , Athena , Ares Neptune , and the like as part of an superannuated culture . But we must look back on theat culture with profound awe . From these man-like gods , the Greek managed to drawn inspiration for much of the great literature of the ancient world , and much that is fundamental to many of our finest liberal liberal arts forms we owe to this culture...If you want to get a full essay, spue it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: cheap essay