Underworld and Afterlife

Underworld goddess (thea), whose name is not uttered.
6522: Relief dedicated by the priest Lakrateides and his family to the Eleusinian deities. Detail: nameless goddess (thea) 100-90 BC. Archaeological Museum of Eleusis


Underworld goddess (thea), whose name is not uttered.
6522: Relief dedicated by the priest Lakrateides and his family to the Eleusinian deities. Detail: nameless goddess (thea) 100-90 BC. Archaeological Museum of Eleusis.
After death there is no annihilation. The dead are dead because they lead a flavourless and unhappy existence in the Underworld. Those who for practical purposes are dead, but nevertheless exist and dwell in all happiness in the Islands of the Blest or Elysium, are called Immortals. So life and death are qualities of existence, not lack of it.

Oceanus and Styx

Between the world of the living and that of the dead there are, it is said, great rivers and dread streams. First, greatest and outermost is Oceanus, which winds about the earth and the sea with nine rings, but is also a subterranean river. The river Styx (river of Hate), which is a primordial figure too (daughter of Oceanus), is a branch of Oceanus and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. So Styx, which flows out from a rock, is the tenth ring, though some say that Styx itself corrals the souls in the Underworld with nine rings.