Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The Palgrave Handbook of the AfterlifeClassical Mediterranean Conceptions of the Afterlife

The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife: Classical Mediterranean Conceptions of the Afterlife [According to Plotinus’ exegesis of Homer’s Odyssey 11.601-2, Heracles’ image or shadow is in Hades, but he himself is among the gods (Ennead I.1[53].12; see also IV.3 [27].32). I shall explore the distinctions between living body, shadow and self as these affect Mediterranean thought about the Afterlife from the seventh century BC to the fifth AD. There was no one universal and coherent account in those years, either of the individual self or of the afterlife: for some, all that survived was memory; others might expect a simple repetition of our lives over infinite time or space; others again, from early until late, supposed that we were spirits, with no essential identity with our living bodies. Schematically, very different Spenglerian cultures develop in those centuries, despite the use of similar terms (like psyche) to describe – in Egyptian terms – both ka and ba.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

The Palgrave Handbook of the AfterlifeClassical Mediterranean Conceptions of the Afterlife

Part of the Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion Book Series
Editors: Nagasawa, Yujin; Matheson, Benjamin
Clark, Stephen R. L.
The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife — Aug 15, 2017
Download PDF
16 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/the-palgrave-handbook-of-the-afterlife-classical-mediterranean-Djw0DiKHvw
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017. The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN
978-1-137-48608-0
Pages
41 –57
DOI
10.1057/978-1-137-48609-7_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[According to Plotinus’ exegesis of Homer’s Odyssey 11.601-2, Heracles’ image or shadow is in Hades, but he himself is among the gods (Ennead I.1[53].12; see also IV.3 [27].32). I shall explore the distinctions between living body, shadow and self as these affect Mediterranean thought about the Afterlife from the seventh century BC to the fifth AD. There was no one universal and coherent account in those years, either of the individual self or of the afterlife: for some, all that survived was memory; others might expect a simple repetition of our lives over infinite time or space; others again, from early until late, supposed that we were spirits, with no essential identity with our living bodies. Schematically, very different Spenglerian cultures develop in those centuries, despite the use of similar terms (like psyche) to describe – in Egyptian terms – both ka and ba.]

Published: Aug 15, 2017

There are no references for this article.