Amber Truhanovitch November 26, 2007

Compare and Contrast essay Group-C

Ancient civilization and cultures expressed their beliefs through the epic tales of heroes. The underworld is a major religious aspect of cultures. The Greeks portray their beliefs of the horrid misery of life and afterlife through the Odyssey. The Aeneid represents a different mood, similar to hierarchy, showing how Romans believe in a life equal to what souls deserve. And finally the ancient Mesopotamians portray their fear of death and struggle through The Epic of Gilgamesh.

The heroes of these three stories travel to the underworld, but their motives for traveling vary greatly. In the short story of the Odyssey, Odysseus travels to the underworld in hope to find the blind prophet, Tiresias. The Greek culture of the Odyssey was based on the Gods and religion, and throughout the Odyssey the aspects of Greek life where portrayed. At the same time the Roman culture had a futuristic point of view as well as a religious state. So in the Aeneid fate was already predetermined. Aeneas traveled to the underworld to find his father who would then inform Aeneas of the future that awaits him. Unlike the culture of Roman and the Greeks, the early Mesopotamians were still exploring the meaning of life. The purpose for Gilgamesh’s adventure was to look for the flower that would give eternal life. It is portrayed throughout the tale that the Mesopotamians were afraid of death and they envied immortality. These are just a few was in which the cultures of early civilization were different.

Along with the reasons for traveling to the underworld, culture affects how different civilization set the mood of the underworld. In the Odyssey the underworld was the dreariest as it contained many dark figures. This was also shown when Odysseus had to enter into the underworld and he had to travel down a silent and dark tunnel. The mood represented the Greeks belief that the underworld was a very unhappy place to be. The Aeneid was a less eerie environment and Aeneas did not have to travel a dark road to enter into the underworld and he was welcomed by the golden bough. As the Romans learned and developed more they gained the idea that the underworld is bad if you were bad so Aeneas’ bough gave him protection through his journey. Finally in The Epic of Gilgamesh, he too enters peacefully. The underworld is not a peaceful place, nor a horrible place, but it merely connects the upper world and the lower world. This connection and a simple place after death was how the ancient Mesopotamians thought of the underworld.

These concepts of mood are also illustrated through the different divisions and sections of the underworld. The Greek’s unhappy and eerie environment is portrayed through the trip of Odysseus. He calls spirits towards him to feel their feelings, for example the grief of his mother and he hears the stories of soldiers who have died. He also encounters Agamemnon who speaks of the murder of his wife, Ajax who murdered himself, and Tantalus who has thirst and hunger. The point of the Odyssey is to show the horrible place with much death. The Romans view the underworld as a place of your own, meaning if you have done badly then in the underworld you will not have a good life. In the Aeneid the souls that have not been found and given the proper burial cannot even cross to the underworld. Once in the underworld, he sees the fields of mourning and he hears screams among the suffering suicidal souls. Then there are the fields of war heroes, which contain most of the Trojan War casualties. Next, Aeneas passes the fortress which contains the most evil of sinners. The final part of the underworld is the Blessed Groves where all is peaceful and there are no more screams. This is where the people who have not committed sins go after death. The ancient Mesopotamians where afraid of death so their interpretation of what the underworld could possible be like was very dark and gruesome. The tunnel through the mountain symbolized how the underworld would most likely be. Gilgamesh has to walk in total darkness, he struggled for breath in some places and others have a strong wind blowing in his face. No human being is supposed to be able to endure the complete darkness. But after the twelfth double hour he reaches the morning air and sunlight as well as the beautiful gardens. The Mesopotamians believe that if the soul has not committed any sins and they deserve happiness they will reach this beautiful, peaceful place, but if not, they will perish amongst the darkness.

Major factors in cultures are their interpretations of life after death. The afterlife in the three tales represents the different cultures ideas of the underworld through the motives to travel to the underworld, the mood the afterlife presents and how the afterlife is sectioned. The ancient Mesopotamians, the earliest of the three cultures, have the most undeveloped ideas of life, so their interpretations of afterlife are an eerie unwelcoming environment. The Greeks have modern beliefs within their religion and believe death is in general an unhappy acquaintance. Finally the Romans, who are also involved in religion, had the most advanced thoughts and descriptions of the underworld than any other religion.