Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Chthonic Mysteries of Greece: Gods and Goddesses of Death (Part 3) - TPM 09
0 Plays2 seconds ago
In this episode, we uncover the Mycenaean roots of Ancient Greek deities and beliefs about death and the afterlife. The Mycenaeans controlled much of Greece and the Aegean Sea starting about 1700 BCE until about 1200 BE, when the Late Bronze Age collapse led to hundreds of years of political, social, and climate upheaval for the entire region. But through their monumental architecture, art, and stories they left behind, Classical Greek mythology was born. Discover the origins of deities like Dionysus, Poseidon, and Hermes and their original underworld associations. Journey into sacred sites the Greeks inherited from the Mycenaeans, like the Sanctuary of Poseidon with caverns that have been associated with sacred burials and the underworld as far back as the Neolithic. Then we'll take a look at Hades and several less famous Greek goddesses, gods, and monsters of death and the underworld.
Transcripts
- For transcripts of this episode head over to: https://archpodnet.com/tpm/09
Links
- See photos related to episode topics on Instagram
- Loving the macabre lore? Treat your host to a coffee!
ArchPodNet
- APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
- APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
- APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
- APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
- Tee Public Store: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/archaeology-podcast-network?ref_id=5724
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Past Macabre Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to the past macabre, where we journey through history to uncover how our relationship with death reflects the values, fears, and hopes that shape the way people live. I'm
Greek Mythology and the Mediterranean Influence
00:00:40
Speaker
your host, Stephanie Rice. Thank you for joining me for episode nine, Cathonic Mysteries of Grease. This is part three of the Death Gods and Goddesses series of episodes that will look at some of the many deities of death from around the world.
00:00:58
Speaker
The Mediterranean has been an interconnected region for thousands of years, and that's reflected in a lot of their borrowed cultural practices, legends, and deities that were changed to suit the needs of the region.
00:01:11
Speaker
There's so many that it would be a Herculean task to cover all of the variations of Death deities from the entire region in one episode and tie them all together, like they most likely are. Instead, this episode will focus on Greece and the islands across the Aegean Sea that were under Greek influence.
00:01:32
Speaker
We'll trace
Exploration of Greek Deities and Mycenaean Origins
00:01:33
Speaker
the roots of some of Greece's most famous gods and goddesses associated with the underworld to the Bronze Age Mycenaeans. Then we'll meet some of the lesser known deities and daemons who are said to guide, protect, or sometimes destroy the dead. Along the way, we'll explore some of the landscapes and historical events that likely inspired these stories that have endured even today.
00:02:00
Speaker
Now, let's descend into the myths and mysteries of death in ancient Greece.
00:02:12
Speaker
The timeline of cultures who have lived in the Greek archipelago and the mainland goes back for several thousand years. But for this episode, we'll start with the Mycenaeans. The oldest archaeological evidence of the Mycenaeans dates to about 1700 BCE.
00:02:29
Speaker
By about 1400 BCE, they had expanded their influence across the islands in the Aegean Sea, most of mainland Greece, and as far as Sicily and into the southern tip of the Italian peninsula.
00:02:42
Speaker
The Mycenaeans
Mycenaean Decline and Greek Dark Ages
00:02:43
Speaker
thrived for roughly 200 years until the decline of the Late Bronze Age that impacted the entire region due to a series of events initially caused by several volcanic eruptions that were strong enough to cause climate change, and that led to several years of a volcanic winter across Europe.
00:03:01
Speaker
This led to several years of poor harvests and then elites began strictly controlling food resources, which led to several civil wars across the region. These also led to conflicts between neighboring political powers who needed more resources than they were able to create. For nearly four centuries after the collapse of Mycenae from about 1200 BCE to about 800 BCE, e the region was in chaos.
00:03:29
Speaker
There was a lot of knowledge that was lost during this time due to several factors, and major cities were completely abandoned. Though some of them like Thebes did become reoccupied a couple of centuries later, some, especially in the Hittite region of the Mediterranean, have been left abandoned ever since.
00:03:48
Speaker
Fun fact, this is where the myth of cyclopean masonry comes from. These were the ancient walls found at Mycenaean sites that were built using massive stones that seemingly fit together perfectly with very little work done to them.
00:04:03
Speaker
The Greeks rediscovered this impressive stonework of the Mycenaeans, but their techniques had already been lost during these Greek dark ages. So the Greeks assumed that the only beings strong enough to build walls such as these were the giant cyclopes from their mythology. This has spawned quite a few modern conspiracy theories despite the large amounts of research done to prove that these were designed by human ingenuity and built with human hands.
00:04:30
Speaker
just because the Greeks didn't remember how to build them, doesn't mean that humans couldn't build them. While the Mycenaeans did leave art and texts, both of the mundane and the mythical, it's difficult to get a detailed picture of their worldview or their deities like we have for the later Greek or Roman pantheons or even ancient Egyptian.
00:04:52
Speaker
But we can piece together enough of the Mycenaean pantheon to know they inspired the later Greeks, and the stories of the early classical Greek writers, especially Homer, preserved some of their oral traditions that had carried through the Greek Dark Ages.
Mycenaean Influence on Greek Mythology
00:05:07
Speaker
Demeter was part of Episode 8, Winter's Cold Embrace, so I'll give a very brief description for her Mycenaean predecessor. She's attested to as Da Mati in Mycenaean texts and is associated with the full cycle of life and agriculture from fertility to death. Offerings to her have been found in burial goods and in cave sanctuaries that the Mycenaeans viewed as sacred liminal spaces between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
00:05:36
Speaker
Next is Diwonuso, the Mycenaean precursor to Dionysus. Prior to his role as a god of wine and parties, Dionysus represented the dualities of humanity and was depicted in roles associated with both women and men. Dionysus originally presided over ecstasy and despair, civil order and feral chaos, suffering and triumph, and like Demeter, fertility and death.
00:06:04
Speaker
He was initially associated with both grapes and ivy, which represented his duality as well. Ivy blooms in the autumn and then produces berries in the springtime that are naturally toxic. But the rest of the plant can actually be used for medicinal purposes. In fact, the leaves are still used by some cultures today as a natural cough suppressant.
00:06:24
Speaker
Grapes, on the other hand, start off blooming in the spring and then produce their fruit in the autumn, and they are naturally harmless, but then are fermented into a toxin, which is wine. The Greek version of Dionysus strongly emphasized his association with grapes, and a second god appeared later in their pantheon named Corimbus, which he was associated with ivy only, and his name became synonymous with clusters of ivy berries.
00:06:52
Speaker
The city of Thebes in Greece, not Egypt, was once a Mycenaean city and researchers think the differences in Dionysus worship there in comparison to the rest of Greece are closer to the Mycenaean version.
Dionysus and Orphism
00:07:05
Speaker
Especially since across Greece, Thebes was said to be the birthplace of Dionysus. Here there were two Greek temples to Dionysus with two different epithets.
00:07:16
Speaker
Epithets are the titles that are given to gods and sometimes kings on different statuary or depictions of them. The ones here at Thebes were Dionysus Lysios, meaning Dionysus the Liberator, and Dionysus Cadmus. Both link him to the mythical founder of Thebes who was named Cadmus.
00:07:38
Speaker
Archaeological research has found evidence of ritual activity at the site here since Mycenaean times, so it's very likely that the Greeks who worshipped Dionysus here inherited these temples from their Mycenaean predecessors and therefore associated Dionysus with the city's origins.
00:07:55
Speaker
As I mentioned before, Thebes was abandoned by the Mycenaeans during the late Bronze Age collapse, and then people came back several generations later. They likely pieced together writing and art that they found with the oral stories that they knew in order to shape their version of the origin of the city and Dionysus.
00:08:14
Speaker
One of the main myths of Dionysus that preserves his role as a deity associated with death comes from Orphism, which is a cult that's centered around Dionysus and was said to be started by the legendary poet hero prophet Orpheus. The same Orpheus whose most famous myth involves his journey to the underworld to bring back his wife, Eurydice, which ended in failure at the last moment because of his own folly.
00:08:40
Speaker
He was said to be the son of the Muse Calliope and a mortal king, and he had the power to play music that would mesmerize anyone and anything, plants, animals, humans, even gods. Initiates of Orphism would participate in an annual festival that celebrated the cycle of life, death, and rebirth that was called the Dionysian Mysteries, similar to the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone.
00:09:04
Speaker
The myth reenacted in their rituals was their version of the origin of Dionysus and humanity. In this myth, Dionysus Zagreus was born of Zeus and Persephone. From birth, he was destined to inherit Zeus's throne and the underworld since he embodied the duality of life and death.
00:09:24
Speaker
The origin of the epithet Zagreus is still not fully known, but many researchers have agreed that this was specifically associated with the underworld, possibly calling him a hunter of souls. This divine inheritance echoes the Mycenaean view of Dionysus as a god of fertility and death.
00:09:44
Speaker
Hera, who is often depicted as the jealous wife of Zeus whose rage is a major plot point for many mythological origin stories, conspired with the Titans, who were still very mad about being overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians. They ambushed Dionysus Zagreus, tore him apart, and then ate him to gain the power of his divine flesh. Zeus, rightfully furious, incinerated the Titans with his lightning bolts, leaving only their ashes.
00:10:14
Speaker
From this mix of Titan remains and Dionysus's divine essence, humanity was formed. A blend of physical sin and divine potential. The heart of Dionysus Zagreus was saved and taken to Zeus. He ate the heart to absorb that last bit of Dionysus's divine spirit, and through yet another affair, this time with the mortal woman Simile, Dionysus was reborn.
00:10:40
Speaker
He lost his title directly linking him to the underworld, but still took on a role that connects him to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. For the followers of Orphism, this reincarnation cycle was believed to be a curse, not a blessing. Through the use of psychoactives, lots of wine, rhythmic music, singing, and dancing, initiates would enter xtasis, which is a Greek term that literally means standing outside oneself.
00:11:10
Speaker
This refers to a hypnotic state or trance in which the participants were believed to step outside of their ordinary consciousness and enter a heightened state that connected them with the divine. Through this ritualistic loss of self, initiates were said to have purified themselves of the sin of the titans to break free of the reincarnation cycle so that they could live a peaceful afterlife.
00:11:33
Speaker
In the Dionysian mysteries, the aspect of Dionysus that was the god of wine and revelry was meant to induce this connection to the ideal afterlife. Again, echoing the Mycenaean version who was part of the entire life and death cycle. However, many of the other festivals for Dionysus that were held across ancient Greece tended to focus only on the wine and revelry aspect, which is why that's the version of Dionysus we see reflected today.
00:12:03
Speaker
Josedeo, the Mycenaean predecessor of Poseidon. Based on the amount of Mycenaean inscriptions that bear his name, he was likely the most important god of the Mycenaean pantheon, unlike Zeus, who became the most important god of the Greek pantheon.
00:12:19
Speaker
It makes sense for a culture that was dependent on a mostly maritime trade network and had several cities across multiple islands to worship a god of the sea.
Poseidon and Mycenaean Religious Practices
00:12:29
Speaker
But to the Mycenaeans, he was also a god of earthquakes, underground water sources like aquifers or deep springs, and the underworld. As with the Mycenaean versions of Demeter and Dionysus, Poseidon was associated with both life and death and offerings were left for him in cave sanctuaries.
00:12:47
Speaker
The best preserved of these is on the southernmost part of the Mani Peninsula in Greece. The ancient residents of this area that are best known today are the Spartans, and they established a settlement called Tanerum here. But archaeological evidence shows that the Mycenaeans had a settlement here long before the Spartans.
00:13:07
Speaker
The Sanctuary of Poseidon was built here, overlooking the sea at the entrance to a fairly large cave system that was said to be the entrance to the underworld. According to classical Greek writers, this was where Herakles completed his twelfth labor to steal Kerberos, the three-headed dog who guarded the underworld. This cave was also known as the place where Orpheus entered and exited the underworld when he went on his doomed mission to bring back his wife.
00:13:33
Speaker
Poseidon's control over deadly earthquakes is remembered here in a myth from Sparta. It was said that a group of the indigenous inhabitants of the area were fleeing the invading Spartans and they went into the sanctuary. In Greece, certain sanctuaries were known as acelia or asylums, which meant that anyone who fled to them, no matter the reason, was protected from any persecution or harm.
00:13:58
Speaker
even if the law of the state would normally allow them to be captured, like criminals, escaped slaves, or people bailing on debts. This sanctuary of Poseidon was one of those asylum places, but the Spartans did not honor this, and they followed the refugees in and killed them. According to the Greek writers of the time, Poseidon unleashed his wrath when the offenders returned to Sparta with a massive earthquake that caused over 10,000 deaths.
00:14:26
Speaker
We have a mountain of evidence that the earthquake that inspired this myth was actually a real event and can be dated to 464 BCE. The classical Greek writers who recorded the myth didn't have an exact date, but it's easily narrowed down based on which writers mention it.
00:14:43
Speaker
Archaeologists have found quite a few sites with buildings across what was ancient Sparta that collapsed during the fifth century, and some of them were rebuilt with newer materials, but some were left in ruins, preserving materials at the same layer, and that allows us to date the sites. Geologists have also found evidence of the earthquake in a place where the ground has visibly shifted upward so that it's offset from the rest of the ground around it near the fault. It's known as a fault-scarp.
00:15:11
Speaker
It's very likely the influence of the Mycenaean associations with Poseidon and earthquakes that were here already, coupled with the timing of the Spartans starting their expansion into this area, are what inspired this myth.
00:15:23
Speaker
The deep caverns on this peninsula seem to have earned their association with the underworld through real events as well. The geology of the Mani Peninsula creates quite a lot of caves and underground freshwater lakes. Some of them have been associated with death for quite a long time, even before the Mycenaeans. A little ways north on the western coast of the peninsula is another deep cave system that has Neolithic burials dating to about 5000 BCE.
00:15:52
Speaker
The last one that's been found dates to about 3800 BCE, so it was in use for a while. It's one of the largest Neolithic burial sites found so far, with 161 identifiably different individuals found. There are also Mycenaean burial urns that were interred here later, showing that they had found this place and then they viewed it as a sacred location for the dead.
00:16:16
Speaker
Another
Hermes and the Role of Daemons
00:16:17
Speaker
Mycenaean god who became a well-known part of the Greek pantheon is Ermehe, also known as Hermes. This Mycenaean origin story is lost, but according to later Greek mythology, he was the son of Zeus and one of the star nymphs of the Pleiades star cluster. Zeus gets around in quite a lot of myths.
00:16:39
Speaker
Hermes was the god of writing, messages, health, travelers, thieves, tricksters, merchants, fertility, luck, roads, and honestly quite a bit more by the time of classical Greece.
00:16:52
Speaker
Similar to his roles as a messenger and the god of travelers, he was also a guide for the dead, leading their souls from the land of the living to the shores of the River Styx, or sometimes the River Acheron, to be ferried across by Charon. The root word for Hermes' name is used in the ancient Greek term for cairns, herma. Cairns were used as a type of burial structure where remains were placed within a circle of stones, and then more stones are piled on top.
00:17:21
Speaker
Burial currents have been found in various forums all over Europe from many different periods and cultures, some dating as far back as 5000 B.C. In Greece, they were used during the Bronze Age and mostly by the predecessors of the Mycenaeans and in the early Mycenaeans. It's very likely that Hermes began with specific associations to those types of burials and then eventually evolved as the burial structures evolved as well.
00:17:50
Speaker
In classical Greece, cairns were no longer used for burials, but they were still built and associated with Hermes. According to one myth, Hermes was on trial for killing the legendary King Argus. The gods cast their votes with stones, and since every god believed Hermes to be innocent of this accusation, the stones that piled up to clear his name became known as the first cairn.
00:18:14
Speaker
They were then used as boundary markers and placed as crossroads with evidence of offerings left around them to pray for the protection of Hermes during their travels. During this time, Hermes kept his connection with the physical burials in the form of a stone pillar that was also named Herma, similar to the ancient term for the cairns. These were carved with only the head and genitals of Hermes, preserving his older associations with both fertility and death.
00:18:43
Speaker
a remnant of his Mycenaean version, similar to the associations with both fertility and the underworld, as seen in the other Mycenaean deities. Hermes doesn't seem to have any sanctuaries dedicated to just him in either Mycenaean or Greek times, but he was often included in the offerings made within temples to the other deities that made up the core of the pantheon.
00:19:07
Speaker
and his presence endured, gaining more and more epithets in stories and myths over time, ranging from very serious to trickster god. The last of the deities that can be directly traced to Mycenaean roots is Trophonius, whose name means nourisher of the mind.
00:19:25
Speaker
He was a god of the underworld, architecture, bees, and prophecies. We only have Greek and Roman texts describing him, but they reference earlier works that associate him with the cities of Orgomenos and Hyria, which we now know are Mycenaean cities.
00:19:43
Speaker
This makes it very likely that he was inspired by a Mycenaean deity, especially because of his myths. According to the myths of Trophonius that have endured, he and his brother were demigods, son of Apollo and a mortal woman. They were known far and wide as the best architects and builders of sanctuaries for the gods and palaces for the greatest of kings.
00:20:05
Speaker
There was a king who was a son of Poseidon, and his mother was also one of the star nymphs of the Pleiades star cluster, though not the mother of Hermes. His mother was one of her sisters, making him a cousin of Hermes.
00:20:20
Speaker
He used his divine influence to make sure his kingdom was incredibly prosperous, and his wealth grew and grew. This king became paranoid, and so he hired Trophonius and his brother to build him a large, well-protected treasury for his hoard. Jealous of the wealth he had amassed simply using divine influence while the brothers had worked hard, the brothers decided to build a secret entrance for themselves into the treasury.
00:20:47
Speaker
Then they could sneak in later and steal some of the king's gold, but they did it slowly, taking only a little each day. Eventually the king noticed though, and despite the treasury still appearing to be completely sealed, things were going missing.
00:21:03
Speaker
He decided to set a snare in order to catch the thief, and the brothers unknowingly ran into it the next time that they entered the vault. Trophonius' brother was trapped in the snare and unable to get free, so Trophonius killed him and cut off his head so that Trophonius could flee and no one could identify the thief as his brother.
00:21:22
Speaker
As punishment for such a heinous crime, the Earth opened up and swallowed Trophonius forever entombing him in the underworld as a Daemon, or a lesser deity of the underworld who's not quite a god and no longer a living demigod. Daemons weren't inherently good or evil. They generally acted as guides or protectors in some myths, and in others they were more malicious. It seems that Trophonius became mostly harmless.
00:21:53
Speaker
According to another myth, he was taken to the underworld at Lebedea, which is about 6 miles or 10 kilometers away from the city of Orcominos. This is important for reasons we will get into after the myth. For several generations, Trifonius lay buried here, forgotten. Eventually, his influence began to seep into the world, and he caused a plague to fall upon the city that had grown near the place where he fell.
00:22:19
Speaker
After a while of unsuccessfully trying to find the cause or a cure for this plague, the city sent people to the most famous oracle of Apollo at Delphi. They were told that an ancient hero of their people had grown angry that he was forgotten, but the oracle couldn't tell them exactly who, just that they needed to find him and build a temple in his honor. The envoy returned to Lebedea to inform them and the search for their long forgotten hero began.
00:22:46
Speaker
The plague continued to ravage their city, so it's important to get everyone who wasn't sick involved in the search, even children. There are variations behind his motivation, depending on the source of this myth, but either due to hunger or boredom, a boy wandered away from the search parties to follow a swarm of bees. Instead of returning to a nest full of honey, the bees showed the boy a cavern where Trophonius was, then Trophonius showed him that this was where he was taken to the underworld.
00:23:16
Speaker
When the boy entered, he was able to see Trophonius and he was told that he had found the hero of the Levodaeans. When he returned, the people erected the temple for Trophonius here and the plague was instantly lifted from the city. It was said that the boy was not the only one to receive divine knowledge from Trophonius here once they entered the cave, and so it became known far and wide as the Oracle of Trophonius.
00:23:42
Speaker
Anyone who wanted to consult the oracle would stay in a secluded shelter near this cave where they would offer sacrifices and perform rituals every day over several days in preparation. Many of these rituals are lost, but one included bathing in the nearby river that shared the name with its resident, Nyad, Erkina. She was the daughter of Trophonius, according to myth, and she was said to be a childhood friend of Persephone, which further connected this area to other underworld myths.
00:24:12
Speaker
Once the initiate was finished with the prescribed rituals, they would drink something that classical writers called the water of forgetfulness, which was likely a psychoactive substance just like in the Eleusinian mysteries. And then they would descend into a deep, dark cave that became more and more narrow.
00:24:31
Speaker
Eventually, this passage became so narrow that the initiate was forced to lay on their back and scoot feet first further down the narrow passage. It was said that once they got far enough in, something would grab them, quickly pulling them further into the depths where they would be taken on an otherworldly journey that drove them to madness.
00:24:52
Speaker
Once Trophonius told them what they were meant to learn, which took different amounts of time for each person according to Greek and Roman writers, they were returned to the mouth of the tunnel, this time with their feet forward towards the exit to make it easier for them to leave.
00:25:07
Speaker
At this point, the priests of the shrine would take the initiate to a room or a chair next to the shrine and give them what was called the water of memory, which would cause the initiate to vividly remember their visions and speak them out loud in a terrified frenzy. The priests would record everything the initiate said word for word, and then interpret its meaning for the initiate once the initiate had rested and recovered their sanity, which usually took a day or two.
00:25:36
Speaker
It's important to consider context in archaeology, and that includes when looking at myths and legends.
Architectural Myths and Trophonius
00:25:43
Speaker
Many elements of the myth of Trophonius can be found in the very impressive ruins of Mycenaean architecture of Orchomenos. There's a large palace here, as well as the massive cyclopean defensive walls, and a very large beehive-shaped tomb.
00:26:00
Speaker
These were already hundreds of years old by the time the Greeks rediscovered them, and their impressive yet mysterious presence would have inspired all sorts of stories, just like our modern fairy tales and horror stories that are set in medieval castles. The massive beehive-shaped tomb here is known today as the Tomb of Minneus, who was the mythical founder of Orchaminos.
00:26:24
Speaker
It was built around 1300 BCE before the decline of the Mycenaean Empire and this is reflected in the size and contents of the tomb. The base is about 14 meters or 45 feet in diameter and it originally stood at least 10 meters or 33 feet tall.
00:26:43
Speaker
The doorway alone was over 5 meters or 17 feet high, and a passage was cut into the stone hillside leading up to the tomb that was 20 meters or 65 feet long. Essentially, it was incredibly impressive. The inside was a single large burial chamber, and it was likely the family tomb for the royal family of Orcomenos.
00:27:07
Speaker
The walls and ceilings were elaborately decorated with carvings of spirals and flowers, and these designs were very common in Mycenaean art and architecture, cementing if we didn't already know that this was Mycenaean.
00:27:21
Speaker
A large stone bench was built into the wall that went around the entire perimeter of the room, and it likely held other grave goods. There was a large marble pedestal in the center of the room, and there's evidence that it once held several statues that were most likely made of bronze. It was a very impressive structure even in ruins, and according to classical Greek writers, it was even more impressive in antiquity when it was in better condition.
00:27:48
Speaker
There was looting over time, which is why I say there was likely bronze statues and likely grave goods on the bench. But a portion of the ceiling that had collapsed relatively early in the tomb's history managed to preserve one burial's occupant and his lavish grave goods.
00:28:05
Speaker
A man in his forties was buried here with large amounts of jewelry and very well made artifacts like a bronze horse bridle, bronze horse shoes, bows, arrows, and very high quality pottery. It's very easy to see just based on this small snapshot of what this tomb once held, how this could inspire the tale of the king and his treasury that Trophonius and his brother built and then robbed.
00:28:32
Speaker
It definitely seems like it has a divine touch to the architecture, and it most likely looked like a treasury when it was first rediscovered. The story of the boy following the bees to find Trophonius in a cave likely can be traced to this tomb as well, or at least one very similar. Thousands have now been found across the Greek countryside in places that were once Mycenaean.
00:28:55
Speaker
The burial chamber here, like all of the others, was partially subterranean and was accessed through this long passage that was carved directly into the rock, making the entrance to the tomb seem very cave-like. With the beehive shape of the structure towering above onto the hilltop, it definitely would have been inspiring and probably intimidating.
00:29:18
Speaker
In another version of the myth, the demigod ruler that Trophonius crossed ruled over Iria, a place that also has impressive Mycenaean ruins and it's on the island of Naxos. Even though this tale had the offense taking place much further away, it was still said that the region around Orchomenos was the place where Trophonius was swallowed up by the Earth.
00:29:40
Speaker
Interestingly, I bring this up because Iria is home to a temple of Dionysus that dates to the Mycenaean period like the one in Thebes. But here, Dionysus wasn't associated with death. All evidence points to him being worshipped as a god of fertility and marriage. The madness-induced revelations, along with his name referencing nourishment, has led to some theories that Trophonius was the underworld aspect of Dionysus.
00:30:07
Speaker
He was likely interpreted as a different god by the Greeks based on an epithet of Dionysus, similar to the one Zagreus that was found at Thebes. Another piece of evidence for this is the fact that the preparations for consulting the Oracle of Trophonius are very similar to the rituals for the Dionysian and Eleusinian mysteries.
00:30:28
Speaker
Both also involve a form of descending to the underworld and then losing oneself through the use of psychoactives in order to gain knowledge from the divine. Now that's all for the deities of death that are directly linked to Mycenae, but there are still several more classical Greek goddesses and gods associated with the underworld that emerged later.
00:30:50
Speaker
Many Greek deities and demigods are the personifications of very specific locations, parts of nature, or even emotions, and they were often also associated with death. First up is the goddess Styx, who was the personification of the River Styx, and she was said to be one of the many daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, the primordial titans of the oceans and freshwater, respectively.
00:31:17
Speaker
It was said that their children made up all of the lakes and rivers and other bodies of water that are on Earth, so definitely they had many. Styx was said to be the eldest and most esteemed of all of the Oceanids, and of these supernatural women who were said to preside over waters, she was the one most often referred to as a goddess. Her river, the River Styx, was known as one of the subterranean boundary rivers that separate the underworld from the world of the living.
00:31:48
Speaker
So even the body of water she was associated with was seen as incredibly important of the worldview of the Greeks. According to myth, the goddess Styx was the first to support Zeus in his battle against the Titans, and then she brought her four children that she had with Pallas, who was the primordial god of war. They were Zelos, Zeal, Nike, Victory, Bea, Force, and Kratos, Power.
00:32:17
Speaker
Some of those names might be pretty recognizable. As a reward for helping defeat their father and the other Titans, her children were given places of honor in Zeus' court and Styx became known as the Great Oathkeeper who could hold even the gods to their oaths. Though her identity as a goddess faded, the river Styx remained associated with unbreakable oaths. Several classical writers make references about swearing oaths on the waters of Styx and even the gods feared to break these.
00:32:48
Speaker
There's also the famous myth about the demigod Achilles, whose divine mother Thetis, or Thetis, was so worried about a prophecy of his death that she dipped him into the river Styx. She viewed this as the only power that would give him immortality against this fate. She was technically right, but the place on his heel where she held him in for fear of him being carried away by Styx remained vulnerable. And this is how he was killed in the Trojan War.
00:33:17
Speaker
This myth preserves the power of sticks that she originally had over even the gods, since even Thedas, or Thedas, was scared despite having divine powers of her own. Next we have Charon, ferryman of the dead who ferries the souls across the River Styx, or in some stories the River Acheron.
00:33:38
Speaker
Charon is described by writers and depicted in art in many different forms and disguises, from well-to-do elite to very old fishermen and rags to a massive demonic ogre. Charon only ferried those who were given proper burials because part of the burial rites through much of ancient Greece included putting coins in the mouth of the deceased. These were meant to specifically pay for their crossing.
00:34:05
Speaker
Anyone who didn't have this payment for the crossing was doomed to wander, sometimes in miserable limbo and other times as semi-mindless ghosts in the land of the living. In some myths, these lost souls would be able to cross over after 100 years of wandering. In others, it was an eternal punishment. And so those who had defied the gods or been killed as traitors would have intentionally been left without proper burials. Elaborate symbolic burials would still happen when the body of the deceased couldn't be recovered, like for someone lost at sea. So their soul would still be able to have the payment required to cross no matter where their body was.
00:34:47
Speaker
The myths around Charon and then also this burial practice that continued even without a body emphasize the importance placed on proper burial rites in ancient Greece and how they provided comfort and closure for the living, knowing that their actions would ensure their loved one would be guided to the proper place instead of condemned to an eternity of restless wandering. Another guide for souls in the underworld is Thanatos.
00:35:14
Speaker
While Hades is famously king of the underworld and therefore often associated with death itself, Thanatos is the true personification of death, and his name literally is the ancient Greek word for death. Because of this, and the fact that most of the texts that were used as part of the New Testament were originally in Greek, he evolved to become the fourth writer of the apocalypse in medieval Christian mythology.
00:35:38
Speaker
Revelation 6.8 from the Greek New Testament translated into English says, And I looked, and behold a horse, pale green, and the one sitting on it, his name was Thanatos. In Greek mythology, Thanatos' twin brother is Hypnos, god of sleep, and they're the sons of Nyx, the primordial goddess of night, and Erebus, the primordial god of darkness.
00:36:02
Speaker
Thanatos led souls into, through, and sometimes out of the underworld. He was often described by classical Greek writers as merciless and unwavering in his tasks, so both the mortals and gods hated him because no one could stop him once he began leading the dead to the underworld, even if they were favored by the gods.
00:36:23
Speaker
which is curious considering his later myths that do say that he sometimes led the living out of the underworld once they had completed their mission to either speak with someone in the underworld or in some cases attempt to retrieve them to bring them back to the land of the living. His mother Nyx, though not explicitly a goddess of death or the underworld, gets an honorable mention as the mother of many underworld deities.
00:36:49
Speaker
She wasn't worshipped at any temples of her own, but instead was viewed as a powerful, ever-present force. In Orphism, she was considered to be the first deity to emerge from the primordial chaos, and therefore she's the divine mother of everything. Through all the changes in the Greek pantheon over time and by region, Nyx is continuously viewed as the personification of night and the mother of all that it brings, both good and bad.
00:37:16
Speaker
As I mentioned, Thanatos' death and Hypnos' sleep were her children. And so were Oneros, which is dreams, Oysus, which is distress, Aether, which is brightness, Eris, which is strife, Nemesis, retribution, and the Hesperides, which were the nymphs of the golden hour at sunset. And many, many more, honestly. The list could go on for a while, but I think you see the pattern of duality.
00:37:45
Speaker
In addition to Thanatos, several more of her children were specifically associated with death. First is Moros, the lesser god of doom, fate, and the inevitability of death. Not a lot of myths about Moros specifically have survived, but in the fragments that have survived of the 5th century BCE original version of Prometheus Unbound, it's implied that he would give mortals visions of their death, but they could do nothing to change what they saw.
00:38:16
Speaker
In order to push through despite these visions, Prometheus was said to have given humans Elpis, the lesser goddess of false hope. Sometimes
Elpis, Heracles, and Hecate: Myths and Interpretations
00:38:26
Speaker
she's viewed as a blessing by the optimistic and she's associated with optimism. Most of the time she's associated with false hope by writers. Then there's Atropos, one of the three fates. She and her two sister goddesses were the daughters of Nyx and together they embodied fate and destiny as they were said to determine the inescapable fate of every mortal right after they were born. Sounds a bit similar to their brother.
00:38:54
Speaker
Except they had much more power over it and they each held individual domains. Atropos was the goddess who didn't just see how someone would die. She decided the exact cause and ensured it would happen. The fates were often associated with weaving and there are so many depictions of Atropos holding scissors in the process of cutting the thread of life that belonged to the mortal. It was even shown by Disney in Hercules.
00:39:24
Speaker
The last of the children of Nyx associated with death specifically are the Curies. They're nymphs of violent death. They were likely inspired by the wild cats, jackals, and foxes that are native to the region and known to scavenge human remains, since they were described with a sharp, monstrous teeth and claws. They were drawn to anywhere that a particularly bloody death happened, especially battlefields, so they could feast on the blood of the newly dead, who were not recovered from the battlefield quickly enough.
00:39:56
Speaker
Anyone they feasted on was said to be sent to Tartarus, a deep, terrible part of the underworld that was typically reserved for the souls of the worst of the worst. Unless someone got cursed by one of the Curies. They seemed to be the personified fear of scavengers making it impossible for the dead to receive their proper burial rites. Tartarus was also personified as a deity and was described as the Primordial Titan who ruled over the underworld.
00:40:23
Speaker
Very few myths about him have survived but what remains depicts him has the personification of the dark abyss that became the deepest part of the underworld that shares his name and now Hades rules over the rest of the underworld. He was one of the titans who were overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians and now he and the rest of the imprisoned titans are stuck in his realm so they can never escape.
00:40:49
Speaker
As I previously mentioned, the realm of Tartarus was traditionally reserved for the worst, like those who had defied the gods in especially bad ways or those who had been terrible to other mortals in life. But before that, it was known as a prison for particularly nasty monsters when Tartarus was the one who ruled over it. And some of the most famous prisoners here were the Cyclopes.
00:41:14
Speaker
Campy was the guardian of Tartarus during Tartarus' reign. Not quite a goddess but still deserves a mention as a very important guardian. She guarded the monsters imprisoned in Tartarus but was a monster herself.
00:41:30
Speaker
She was described as a giant creature that had the head and chest of a beautiful woman, but she had several monstrous heads as well. Some classical Greek writers specifically said she had heads that were a lion, a boar, and a dog, though it was implied that she had even more beastly heads than just those.
00:41:48
Speaker
She had serpents for hair, claws the size and shapes of sickles, which were a type of curved blade for harvesting grain, and the lower half of her body was a scorpion, including the deadly venomous tail. She had massive black wings, and it was said that on the occasions that she flew to the surface world, her wings would cause violent, windy storms.
00:42:11
Speaker
In the myth where Zeus overthrows the Titans, Zeus killed Compy in order to free the monsters in her charge so that they would help him defeat the Titans who were imprisoned there. This is why the Cyclopes were allowed to remain free and they often caused problems for later heroes. Next, let's take a look at another monstrous guardian of the underworld.
00:42:35
Speaker
Similar to Compy, Kerberos was the guardian monster of Hades, who was a very good boy and also deserves an honorable mention. He's also known as Cerberus, and he's described as the multi-headed dog. Most often he had three heads, but in some tales he has as many as 100. In some stories, his tale was even that of a snake's tail instead of a dog's tail, implying that he was even more monstrous and associated with the underworld.
00:43:03
Speaker
According to the myth of the 12 labors of Heracles, the twelfth and final task he had to perform was to steal Kerberos from the underworld. As previously mentioned, he is said to have entered the underworld through the caves at the Sanctuary of Poseidon on the Mani Peninsula. Once he made it through the underworld for an audience with Hades, he asked if he could take Kerberos. Hades said he could, but only if he could subdue Kerberos without using any metal.
00:43:31
Speaker
He used the Pelt of the Nemean Lion that he gained during his first labor since it was impervious to all attacks, and he made stone arrowheads for his bow to subdue Kerberos so Heracles could then carry him out. In some stories, Heracles was able to successfully show Kerberos off to the king who had tasked him with the labor, and then he returned Kerberos to the underworld easily.
00:43:56
Speaker
In other myths, Kerberos became enraged as soon as he was exposed to the sunlight for the very first time, and then he went on a rampage until returning back to the underworld on his own. It's said that the poisonous plant Econcium, also known as Wolfsbane, was created in the land of the living as soon as Kerberos' saliva landed on the ground during his rampage through the lands.
00:44:19
Speaker
Other than that incident, he was depicted as minding his own business until he was disturbed by various heroes throughout Greek mythology. Now we'll look at Hecate, best known as the Greek goddess of magic, but she was also a goddess of crossroads, boundaries, mediation, the underworld, safe passage through the night, and she was a protector of households.
00:44:40
Speaker
The name Hecate is a very uncertain origin, as is the goddess. Many researchers agree that she started outside of Greece, but the exact location is up for debate. Some say Egypt because the word for magic there is Hecah, and she shares some traits with the fertility goddess Hecaht. Some say Mesopotamia because of her similarities to the goddesses Ishara and Alani, who were also associated with the underworld and magic in their regions.
00:45:10
Speaker
In different places throughout Greece, Hecate held titles like Triodia, which meant of the crossroads, Cleoducus, which meant keeper of the keys, and Inodioa, which meant on the road. These titles were related to her roles in both the world of the living and the underworld.
00:45:32
Speaker
She was often depicted holding one or multiple torches that were said that they could never be put out no matter what, and keys that represented her ability to bar entry to any unwanted guests or to unlock the gates between realms however she wanted. According to the myths of the Eleusinian mysteries, Hecate helped Demeter search for Persephone and she was the one who learned that Persephone had been taken by Hades.
00:45:58
Speaker
After she tells Demeter the news, Hecate is the one who mediated the deal that allowed Persephone to leave the underworld for part of the year. From then on, she and Hermes became the companions and guides for Persephone's annual journey into the underworld, and then her return to the surface. The oldest depictions that are identifiably Hecate depict her as a single goddess with one head seated on a throne, and often she has dogs or snakes with her. Sometimes both.
00:46:26
Speaker
These are two animals that are most commonly associated with the underworld for the classical Greeks, especially, but we even see it in art for the Mycenaeans. Later, in her role as a goddess of crossroads, she began to be depicted as having multiple heads so that she could watch every path that met at the crossroads. Then, late in the Greek period and into the Roman period, Hecate became associated with the moon and joined with the goddess Diana and Celine to form the triple moon goddess.
00:46:57
Speaker
Like Hermes, she wasn't worshipped at temples dedicated to only her, but she was important in rituals with several other gods at their temples. Most especially Demeter and Persephone, but she also was part of the Dionysian mysteries. She had many household shrines dedicated to her as well. And then there were also shrines at very important crossroads, similar to the cairns of Hermes that were found at more commonly at smaller crossroads.
00:47:25
Speaker
According to myth, Hecate chose to live in the underworld, sometimes only during the part of the year that Persephone was there, simply to be her companion and sometimes even her administrator. But most of the time it was viewed as her permanent residence.
00:47:42
Speaker
In addition to the epithets associated with travel, she had titles specifically tying her to the underworld, like Enasa and Naroy, which meant queen of those below, or Nick DePaulos, which meant night wanderer, or Kithonia, which meant from the underworld.
00:48:00
Speaker
When she was given these titles, she was often associated with leading souls across the land of the living from the underworld instead of the other way around. But those myths that survive of that are only fragmented and unfortunately we don't know the origin of why she did that.
00:48:18
Speaker
Last but not least is Hades. He's the most commonly recognized ruler of the underworld, and he presides over his domain that shares his name with a stoic sense of order. The underworld was not a place of eternal damnation to the Greeks, but it was the inevitable destination for all mortals. Unless you ended up in Tartarus.
00:48:40
Speaker
Hades' role was to ensure the proper management of this vast underground kingdom, which obviously would be much larger than the land of the living, considering everyone who had ever lived ended up there. The management of this was then essential to the Greek cosmos as the land of the living or the gods of Mount Olympus were.
00:49:01
Speaker
without his order and the guardians who served him. The dead would wander the land of the living as those wandering souls and shades, the same as the ones who were punished. There are few temples to Hades across Greece, but one of these is the Plutonian at Eleusis, which is a cave near the sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone, where the Eleusinian mysteries were held.
00:49:27
Speaker
Another was the Plutonian at Herapolis, famous for its toxic gases that only priests of the temple could survive. I talk about both of these more in episode 5, Entrances to the Underworld, if you want to learn more about these. But one of the most famous temples of Hades in the classical Greek world was the Necromantion of Acheron, which was dedicated to him and Persephone.
00:49:52
Speaker
Similar to the caves of the Mani Peninsula and the Oracle of Trophonius, this was said to be a site where mortals could descend into caves to communicate with the dead or enter the underworld. It was said to be located on the real Acheron River which was named for the mythical Acheron River that was believed to be one of the waterways that Charon, the ferryman, used to transport the souls to the underworld.
00:50:17
Speaker
Unlike the other two sites, the site of the Necromantion has not yet been rediscovered. In 1958, a site was identified as the temple, but more recent research revealed that this site was actually a large farmstead with a pretty large house and workshops for making all of the household tools and ceramics.
00:50:38
Speaker
This indicates that it was just a hub of domestic activity rather than a spiritual center because none of the artifacts found indicate that they were of any specific value like would have been seen at a temple. The true location of the necromantion remains lost to history. It was considered very bad luck to say Hades' name out loud. So one of the most common epithets used for him was Ploton, which meant wealthy one.
00:51:06
Speaker
This was in reference to the precious metals and gemstones that were mined from the earth. In many rituals that invoked him at the temples of other gods, like the Eleusinian Mysteries, this title was used for him, Ploton. But at the temples dedicated to Hades specifically, it seems that his name was used in the rituals, even if the sites themselves didn't use Hades in their names.
00:51:30
Speaker
This is part of the evidence that researchers have that Hades' name was used only to specifically draw his attention, and therefore when you didn't want it, it was bad luck to say his name. There was a separate god in the Greek pantheon named Plutus, which was personified wealth, particularly from mining and agriculture.
00:51:51
Speaker
He wasn't specifically associated with the underworld, but over time, the lines between Hades as Plouton and Plutus as his own god blurred, and then they both became merged or syncretized with the Roman god of the underworld. But we'll dig into that in the next episode. That brings us to the end of this journey through the Mycenaean and Greek gods and goddesses that were associated with death and the underworld.
00:52:17
Speaker
Many are meant to honor the cycles of life, death, and rebirth all in one, instead of just death. And they all reflect the human need to find meaning in the unknown and seek guidance from forces greater than ourselves. Thanks for joining me. Until next time.
00:52:38
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe to keep up with new releases. Please leave a rating and a comment that helps the show reach others who may be interested in the past macabre. For access to bonus content from all archaeology podcast network shows, become a member at arcpodnet dot.com slash members.
00:53:02
Speaker
slash members. You can find show notes for this and other episodes at arcpodnet
00:53:44
Speaker
The Archaeology Podcast Network is 10 years old this year. Our executive producer is Ashley Airy, our social media coordinator is Matilda Seabreck, and our chief editor is Rachel Rodin. The Archaeology Podcast Network was co-founded by Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle in 2014 and is part of CulturoMedia and DigTech LLC. this has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at w www.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.