Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T15:26:36.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Utopian Motifs in Early Greek Concepts of the Afterlife*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2017

Diana Burton
Diana Burton*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellingtondiana.burton@vuw.ac.nz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper explores the use of utopian motifs in early Greek concepts of the afterlife. The notion of a paradisiacal existence for selected heroes after death is widespread in Greek thought, going back at least as far as Hesiod, and appearing in such diverse sources as Pindar, the Orphic gold leaves, Attic comedy, and Lucian. Such idyllic afterlives share various features common to Lewis Mumford’s ‘utopias of escape’ (The Story of Utopias, London, 1922, 15), such as the absence of pain and toil, plentiful and self-supplying food and drink, the company of one’s peers, and so forth. They also share the utopian ideals of selective and restricted citizenship – although the requirements for entry may vary. The popularity of eschatological utopias is associated with the theme of a lost ‘Golden Age’ and the consequent assumption of the inevitable decline of human societies. Although often regarded as escapist fantasies, eschatological utopias do react, often critically, to perceived issues in the societies that constructed them. Their unreal nature is regarded as problematic, and through their association with Kronos and the Golden Age they exemplify the dangers of anomia. But they also provide a means by which an individual can preserve his consciousness and identity in death.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 50 , November 2016 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
© The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper was given as a research seminar at Victoria University of Wellington in September 2015; I am grateful to my colleagues for their helpful discussion, and particularly to James Kierstead for some useful thoughts about origins, and to Jeff Tatum and the journal’s readers for their suggestions.

References

Bernabé, A. (2011), ‘El tíaso de los elegidos: el Hades órfico como utopía’, in R. Martín Hernández and S. Torallas Tovar (eds), Conversaciones con la muerte: diálogos del hombre con el más allá desde la Antigüedad hasta la Edad Media, 51-66. Madrid Google Scholar
Bernabé, A. and Jiménez San Cristobal, A.I. (2008), Instructions for the Netherworld: The Orphic Gold Tablets. Leiden.Google Scholar
Bradatan, C. (2003), ‘Waiting for the Eschaton: Berkeley’s “Bermuda Project” between Earthly Paradise and Educational Utopia’, Utopian Studies 14.1, 36-50.Google Scholar
Burton, D. (2016), ‘Immortal Achilles’, Greece & Rome 63, 1-28.Google Scholar
Carroll, M. (2003), Earthly Paradises: Ancient Gardens in History and Archaeology. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Clay, J.S. (2009), ‘ Works and Days: Tracing the Path to Arete ’, in F. Montanari, A. Rengakis, and Ch. Tsigalis (eds), Brill’s Companion to Hesiod. 71-90. Leiden.Google Scholar
Dawson, D. (1992), Cities of the Gods: Communist Utopias in Greek Thought. Oxford.Google Scholar
Dodds, E.R. (1973), The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature and Belief. Oxford.Google Scholar
Euler, W. (2000), ‘Unsterbliche Götter und Elysion: Fragen zum Jenseitsglauben im frühen Griechenland’, Incontri Linguistici 23, 35-47.Google Scholar
Evans, R. (2003), ‘Searching for Paradise: Landscape, Utopia, and Rome’, Arethusa 36, 285-307.Google Scholar
Farioli, M. (2001), Mundus alter: Utopie e distopie nella commedia greca antica. Milan.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (1975), Utopias of the Classical World. London.Google Scholar
Finley, M.I. (1975), The Use and Abuse of History. London.Google Scholar
Frisk, H. (1954-1972), Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelburg.Google Scholar
Frye, N. (1966), ‘Varieties of Literary Utopias’, in F.E. Manuel (ed.), Utopias and Utopian Thought. 25-49. Boston.Google Scholar
Giesecke, A.L. (2007), The Epic City: Urbanism, Utopia, and the Garden in Ancient Greece and Rome. Washington.Google Scholar
Gladigow, B. (1974), ‘Jenseitsvorstellungen und Kulturkritik’, Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 26.4, 289-309.Google Scholar
Graf, F. and Johnston, S.I. (2007), Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets. London.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. (1973), Plato: Phaedrus and the Seventh and Eighth Letters. Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (1995), Greek Comedy and Ideology. Oxford.Google Scholar
Levitas, R. (1990), The Concept of Utopia. New York.Google Scholar
Long, T. (1986), Barbarians in Greek Comedy. Carbondale and Edwardsville.Google Scholar
Marin, L. (1984), Utopics: The Semiological Play of Textual Spaces, trans. R. Vollrath. Atlantic Highlands NJ.Google Scholar
Matijević, K. (2015), Ursprung und Charakter der homerischen Jenseitsvorstellung. Paderborn.Google Scholar
Mumford, L. (1922), The Story of Utopias. London.Google Scholar
Pinhiero, M.P.F. (2006), ‘Utopia and Utopias: A Study on a Literary Genre in Antiquity’, in G.L. Schmeling, S.N. Byrne, E.P. Cueva, and J. Alvares (eds), Authors, Authority and Interpreters in the Ancient Novel: Essays in Honour of Gareth Schmeling (Ancient Narrative Supplement 5), 141-171. Groningen.Google Scholar
Raven, J.E. (1965), Plato’s Thought in the Making: A Study of the Development of his Metaphysics. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Roskam, G. (2007), A Commentary on Plutarch’s De latenter vivendo. Leuven.Google Scholar
Rowett, C. (2014), ‘The Pythagorean Society and Politics’, in C.A. Huffmann (ed.), A History of Pythagoreanism. 112-130. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ruffell, Ian A. (2000), ‘The World Turned Upside Down: Utopia and Utopianism in the Fragments of Old Comedy’, in D. Harvey and J. Wilkins (eds), The Rivals of Aristophanes: Studies in Athenian Old Comedy. 473-506. Swansea.Google Scholar
Rusten, J.S. (2011), The Birth of Comedy: Texts, Documents, and Art from Athenian Comic Competitions. 486-280. Baltimore.Google Scholar
Sargent, L.T. (1994), ‘The Three Faces of Utopianism Revisited’, Utopian Studies 5.1, 1-37.Google Scholar
Storey, Ian C. (2000), ‘Some Problems in Eupolis’ Demoi ’, in D. Harvey and J. Wilkins (eds), The Rivals of Aristophanes: Studies in Athenian Old Comedy. 173-190. Swansea.Google Scholar
Thesleff, H. (1986), ‘Notes on the Paradise Myth in Ancient Greece’, Temenos 22, 129-139.Google Scholar
Vermeule, E. (1979), Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry. Berkeley.Google Scholar
West, M.L. (1978), Hesiod: Works and Days. Oxford.Google Scholar
Wilkins, John. (2000), The Boastful Chef: The Discourse of Food in Ancient Greek Comedy. Oxford.Google Scholar
Versnel, H.S. (1993), ‘Kronos and the Kronia’, in H.S. Versnel (ed.), Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual. Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion II, 89-135. Leiden.Google Scholar