Depictions of the Afterlife - 1060 Words

The afterlife as a residence for souls after death has long been a topic of discussion and debate. This idea intrigues many. As Christians we believe that heaven is a place where believers go where life there will be a continuation of their present life, while hell is a place of judgment and punishment where many experience severe treatment. Direct experience is the only way individuals can experience these concepts, but once we obtain the experience it cannot be shared. This ultimately makes us want to know more leading many to visualize the afterlife. Starting with the earliest Greek Epics, such as The Iliad, society has imagined an Underworld, a place beneath the Earth where souls go once the body dies. Our thoughts and expectations about such an idea have changed over time; the idea of the Underworld continues in many Greek and Latin poems and it still used today (Spiegel). The best descriptions of the afterlife are found in Dante’s Divine Comedy. In his first book, The In ferno, Dante explores Hell, a place in which sinners dwell after they die. His account is mainly taken from Book VI of Virgil’s The Aeneid, which describes Aeneas’s journey into the Underworld to visit his father. These two works, written many years apart share similar ideas about life after death and it makes us consider the changes in society’s thoughts over these times. There are obvious differences found between these two stories and they correlate with the different beliefs society has about theShow MoreRelatedComparison Between Etruscan And Roman Art1357 Words   |  6 Pagesmore retrospective memorialization through the depiction of the couple in a state of regularity the Roman Mummy of Artemidorus presents a more prospective approach concerning the deceased through the emphasis of funerary practices. The Sarcophagus with reclining couple from the Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri, Italy, ca. 520 BCE portrays the subjects in their ideal state of life. It functions as a prime example of the extravagant Etruscan depiction of death and the deceased. The man and woman memorializedRead MoreThe Growth Of The Mystery Cult Of Mithraism1664 Words   |  7 Pageslifestyle of a person determined whether a person would be a reward or punished in the afterlife. A reward is happiness and peace and being able to ascend to the stars while a punishment is being tortured somewhere underground. It is hard to understand why Mithraism became popular in Ancient Rome or is there is any actual textual evidence that can link the religion origin. All the information gather is derived from depiction on monuments and the limited mentions of the cult in literary sources. We see mentionRead MoreSum : Forty Tales From The Afterlives By David Eagleman784 Words   |  4 PagesThe characters are, in nearly every chapter, God and the humans. The author’s forty theories about the afterlife point to a bigger picture of the human condition, and raise contemplation about the way the reader lives. The first chapter jumps right into the theme of the book: â€Å"In the afterlife†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This hook is so straight forward and matter-of-fact, the reader is intrigued to read about this afterlife the narrator is so sure about. This is the pattern in every story throughout the book, making the workRead MoreDeath, Morality, And The Afterlife919 Words   |  4 PagesThe idea the death, morality, and the afterlife have gradually changed through history. Death has an unavoidable and unpredictable nature. The conceptualization of death and what happens to a person when they die is perplexing to understand. Humans tend to fear the things in which they cannot begin to explain. No one person exactly knows for sure what to expect once they leave this world. So, we have established religion and science in an attempt to allow us to wrap our heads around this idea. EventuallyRead MoreEssay on The Link Between Hamlet and Renaissance Ideals1308 Words   |  6 Pages He does this for examp le in his play Hamlet (Oakes 68). Hamlet displays the ideals of the Renaissance through his indecisiveness and uncertainty much like the Catholics who questioned their religious beliefs. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a true depiction of the indistinctiveness of beliefs after the Reformation. After the murder of his father, King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet sees his father’s ghost. His father’s ghost tells Hamlet he must avenge his death (Fiero 27). He also reveals to Hamlet thatRead MoreGreek Material Culture1348 Words   |  6 Pagesgives us evidence that the ancient Greek society believed in an afterlife. This is because the Grecians appeared to have left these items with the deceased apparently for their soul to take with and use them in the afterlife. The tomb, â€Å"Treasury of Atreus†, in Mycenae is an example of a tomb that housed a corpse that was believed to be a ruler buried along with large amounts of jewels and treasures intended for use in the afterlife. In addition to the ancient Greek architecture revealing detailsRead MoreReligion And Its Effects On Society1584 Words   |  7 Pagesdeath rears its ugly head, so is it possible that a religious afterlife after death is a man-made? A multitude of religions believe in an afterlife in which all those who plead for acceptance and forgiveness will be granted an afterlife with only pleasant things. Some differentiate from this belief, such as Buddhism, but an afterlife is guaranteed regardless. According to popular religions, only our conscience and souls enter the afterlife, leaving our bodies behind in order to further our journeysRead MoreBruial of the Dead1275 Words   |  6 Pagesonly thing in life that is one-hundred percent certain is death. Humans go through life ignoring this ultimate fate until the day they are confronted. What a civilization does with their deceased tells a lot about their culture and beliefs in an afterlife. Whether a person is cremated or the body is preserved, whether they are buried in the ground or placed in a tomb, and how their final place is decorated all show their cultures values and beliefs and what kind of person they were. At the Getty VillaRead MoreAncient Egyptian Civili zation : Ancient Civilization930 Words   |  4 Pagesfollowed and the right gods were supplicated, all Egyptians, from the wealthy to the poor, could look forward to completing their earthly life. Thus, they could successfully navigating the dangerous underworld and traverse into the blessed, eternal afterlife. Egyptian tombs were like secret art galleries that were never meant to be seen by human eyes. Instead, these amazing examples of artistic craftsmanship spoke only to an elite group of visitors – the gods . Painted on the wall of a tomb belongingRead MoreEgypts Greatest Art1676 Words   |  7 Pagesrealistic, the king’s feet are far too large and his head too small in proportion to his body. These statues held such high importance because they were believed to hold divine power and acted as a place for the king’s â€Å"ka†, or spirit, during the afterlife. Although these statues mainly represented the king after death, during this period sculpture begin to represent the king during life as well. These statues were displayed in temples and served as monuments to attest to the king’s dominance. Both