DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0072
BELIEFS AS TO THE FUTURE LIFE
45
had little disturbing power. When Campbell writes in his
noble address to the Mariners of England, 1 The spirits of
your fathers shall start from every wave,' he can scarcely
be supposed to deny that the souls of British naval heroes
had found a heavenly resting-place.
Sometimes, however, the Greek mind was disturbed by
inconsistencies of this kind, and evolved a theory for their
explanation. Thus a later interpolator of the Odyssey, being
scandalized by the assertion of Odysseus that he saw in Hades
the mighty Herakles, adds1, 'his ghost (etSaXov) only; since
he himself joys amid the delights of the immortal gods.'
Others supposed that it was only the spirits of the unburied
which hovered around their bodies: and it is an ingenious
modern theory that the custom of burning the bodies of the
dead arose out of the desire to prevent them from disturbing
the living. But in spite of everything, the Greek dead retained
to the last their right to levy tribute on their descendants
and friends.
1 Odyssey, xi. 602.
45
had little disturbing power. When Campbell writes in his
noble address to the Mariners of England, 1 The spirits of
your fathers shall start from every wave,' he can scarcely
be supposed to deny that the souls of British naval heroes
had found a heavenly resting-place.
Sometimes, however, the Greek mind was disturbed by
inconsistencies of this kind, and evolved a theory for their
explanation. Thus a later interpolator of the Odyssey, being
scandalized by the assertion of Odysseus that he saw in Hades
the mighty Herakles, adds1, 'his ghost (etSaXov) only; since
he himself joys amid the delights of the immortal gods.'
Others supposed that it was only the spirits of the unburied
which hovered around their bodies: and it is an ingenious
modern theory that the custom of burning the bodies of the
dead arose out of the desire to prevent them from disturbing
the living. But in spite of everything, the Greek dead retained
to the last their right to levy tribute on their descendants
and friends.
1 Odyssey, xi. 602.