Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

102 Hades
An 18th century print of Charon receiving a dead soul
into his boat—taking the oblos (coin) (Fortean Picture
Library)
Charon ferries the spirits of the departed
across the river Styx and into the realm of the
dead. The offspring of Nyx (night) and Erebus
(darkness), Charon was portrayed as a squalid,
grumpy old man with a bad temper. He required
payment of one obol before he would transport
the soul to the other side, and the ancient Greeks
accordingly buried their dead with an obol coin in
their mouths so that they would be able to pay
Charon’s fare.
The Iliad offers the belief that the gods did not
punish or reward souls at death, but the mythology
is not consistent about this, because mention
is occasionally made of the Elysian Fields, or Isles
of the Blessed, a wonderful, pleasurable place
where certain special people get to go. Some of the
shades particularly suffered in Hades, not so much
because of a judgment on their life, but because
they were not properly buried or nourished by
sacrificial food offerings. In the story of Tantalos
in the Odyssey, every time he reached for fruit,
ravenously hungry, the wind would blow the fruit
away. Every time, desperately thirsty, he sought
water, it would evaporate.
Homeric mythology was adapted by the
mystery religions and mixed with secret rituals so
as to provide a personal dimension to religion not
available in the traditional practices and beliefs.
The two most important mystery religions were
the Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries. In Greek
mythology, Orpheus was the son of Calliope, a
muse, and his singing to the lyre could charm
animals and even rocks and trees. When his wife
Eurydice died he was permitted to lead her back
from Hades, provided he did not turn to look at
her until they had arrived safely in the upper
world. He did look at her, however, and she had to
return to Hades. Because Orpheus was one of the
few figures in Greek mythology to visit Hades and
return safely, he became symbolic for many of the
possibility of new life after death.
The actual number of Orphic devotees was
rather small, but they had an impact on Greek
philosophy and culture far beyond their numbers.
A similar impact, out of a much larger devotee base,
came from the Eleusinian mysteries. The myth of
this cult focused on Demeter, the vegetation deity.
Her daughter, Kore, was carried off by Hades, ruler
of the dead. Demeter, not knowing where Kore was,
searched through many lands for her, growing ever
more despondent. She finally arrived at Eleusis, on
the Attica coast not far from Athens, and refused to
allow anything to flower or bear fruit. The devastation
produced by the barren landscape was so terrible
that the gods persuaded Zeus to retrieve Kore
from the underworld. Hermes was sent to accomplish
the task and Hades relented, but not before
persuading Kore to eat a pomegranate, symbolic of
marriage and a promise of return. This trickery
forced Zeus into a compromise, by which Kore
would have to spend one-third (or one-half,
depending on the source) of each year in the underworld,
the part of the year when Demeter is once
again sorrowful and nothing grows. Thus did Kore,
a fertility figure by relation to Demeter, become
identified with Persephone, the wife of Hades and a
figure of death.
Three Platonic dialogues—the Gorgias,
Phaedo, and Republic—include a mythical
account of what happens after death. Plato does
not merely repeat standard stories, but artfully
mixes together elements from the cultural
heritage, the tragedies, and mystery religions. The
myth in the Gorgias describes the judgment of a
soul after death. The soul has been freed from the