The

The Conquest of Death and the Views of the Afterlife

Gods' View and Attitude Towards Human

Learning Targets:

• Examine the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and what the hymn tells us about the afterlife
• Study the different Athenian theories about the afterlife
• Synthesize the connection this makes about the maxims of Greek society

• Demeter would have killed off the race of human beings and denied the gods the honor of sacrifice
• Demeter's interaction with the royal family at Eleusis
• Disguised as an old woman
• Sits by a well and meets the teen daughters of the Queen
• Demophoon: Late born, and much-desired son
• Demeter presents herself as an experienced nanny
• Demeter tries to immortalize Demophoon by anointing him with ambrosia and inserts him into a fire
• The queen is horrified and Demeter chides the queen
• That is when she causes the famine

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Roots to Ritual

Eleusinian Mysteries

Possible reasons for trying to immortalize Demophoon?

Line 248: "I am that Demeter who has share of honour and is the greatest help and cause of joy to the undying gods and mortal men. but now, let all the people build me a great temple and an altar below it and beneath the city and its sheer wall upon a rising hillock obove Callichorus. And I myself will teach my rites, that hereafter you may revenertly perform them and so win the favour of my heart."

Persephone substitute

Taken away from Hades one of the mortals---cheating death

Using a male to overthrow a god in power

• Written in 650-550 b.c.
• Helps us understand the nature of a deity
• Main plot: Abduction of Persephone of Hades and Demeter's search for her.
• Direct connection to a ritual and we can see how the ritual interacts with the text.
• Eleusinian mysteries Mysteries: 1800 year span of worship of Demeter in Eleusis

Greek Marriage Practices

Human Experience of Death and Separation

Basic Storyline

As you read the Homeric Hymn to Demeter...

Demeter is grieving for her daughter who is "dead"

Demeter cannot go to Hades: Hermes and Hades are the only Olympians allowed there

Shows signs of grief:

• Tearing her robe
• Lamentable cries
• This is the only time we see a god mourning the death of another god
• Factual connection between marriage and death

Basic business transaction between two males

The bride did not need to be involved at all

Brides may marry their own uncle in order to keep the money within the family

Epikleros: daughter who is her father's heir

Patrilocal: Woman joins the man's family

Hades (with permission from Zeus), abducts Persephone

Demeter wanders around, looking for Persephone

Demeter strikes a deal with Zeus because she threatens the survival of mankind with a famine.

Zeus and Hades agree that Persephone will spend part of the year in Hades, and part of the year with her mother.

Quick Pair Share

Cite parts in the hymn that mention things that could be related to ritual.

Cite parts in the hymn that mention or relate to the afterlife or death, more specifically.

What are the different things that make up a ritual? Example: Food and drink