Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 1 -- Greek Mythology
CHAPTER 1
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
We begin our underground river journey with Homer (c. 800 BC), whose works -- as we will come
to see -- yet underpin Western culture.
Let us pause, however, to
recognize that the Greeks were
themselves drawing upon other
civilizations.
To the right we have from the
British Museum a bronze
Babylonian panel showing a visit
to caves near the source of the
Tigris in about 852 BC.
We see stalagmites and, in the
lower portion, an underground
river. We'll see much more of the
boatman in chapters to come.
To ancient Greeks, the underworld was not an abstraction. Their underworld -- or least its upper
layer -- was more than 10,000 limestone caverns. And where there's limestone, there's been
(and still may be) water. What humans see, they strive to explain.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are archetypal folkloric epics of human
quest. The Iliad describes the conclusion of the Trojan War and the
Odyssey tells of Odysseus' (Ulysses in Latin) ten-year homeward
journey. Sailing his bark into the dark unknown and undertaking a
series of ordeals, the hero re-emerges as a fuller person. Odysseus
and the Sirens are illustrated on the 2500-year old vase.
Those unfamiliar with the saga can rent the video. While director Joel Cohen admits only to
having read the Classic Comics Odyssey, his and his brother Ethan's film O Brother, Where Art
Thou? (2000) faithfully replicates the tale. Following are a few correspondences.
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