Hannah Bisbing

CAMS 005
11/20/14
Death and the Afterlife: Three Ancient Mediterranean Views

Throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, diverse perspectives, practices, and beliefs about death and
the afterlife prevailed as significant aspects of society. Each civilizations beliefs were highly influenced
by their particular geographical locations, religions, mythology, and literature. The uniqueness,
complexity, and richness of death/afterlife philosophies mirrored the distinct, multifaceted nature of
antique cultures themselves. Three particular historical civilizations that possessed prominent, yet
varying, views of death and post-mortem life were Sumer, Egypt, and Greece.

In most regards of life, death, and cultural beliefs, the ancient Sumerians possessed a rather negative,
dreadful, and hopeless mindset. This was directly correlated to Sumers particular geographical location
in Mesopotamia - an expansive, flat landscape that existed between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Unfortunately, Sumer happened to lie in an area that was surrounded on all sides: the Persian Gulf was to
the east, the Zagros mountain scape stood to the north, and the Syrian-Arabian Desert lay to the south and
west (Egypt, Greece, and Rome). By living in constant uncertainty and in fear of foreign attacks from any
direction, the Sumerians consequentially developed a pessimistic outlook towards life that even extended
into death.

In accordance with their generally depressing perspectives, the people of Sumer realized that death and
dying were inevitable. They also believed that life after death was inconceivably more dreadful and more
morose than mortal life on Earth. Upon death, the Sumerians believed that the deceaseds soul traveled to
the underworld, a dark, gloomy, and painfully monotonous place commonly known as the Land of No
Return that housed the dead (Sumer and the Sumerians). However, there were slight variations with the

particular denotation of the afterlife. For instance, in the famous Sumerian myth The Epic of Gilgamesh,
Enkidu describes the underworld as the House of Dust (Epic of Gilgamesh). According to myth, the
goddess of the underworld Ereshkigal and Nergal, the war god, ruled over the dead for all eternity.

Life in the underworld consisted of eating clay and dust, wearing feathers, and spending eternity
mourning dead souls horrible fates. The life beyond the living was incredibly dismal and the dead were
eternally miserable beings, often being described as bereft of light (Sumer and the Sumerians). There
was no escape from the grimness, darkness, and dreariness of the afterlife, unless an individual was
granted immortality (Epic of Gilgamesh). However, regarding the extremely negative and hopeless
nature of the Sumerians, finding eternal life was nearly, if not entirely, impossible. Damnation to
perpetual grief was therefore unavoidable.

Beyond their particular beliefs of the afterlife, the Sumerians also had unique burial practices. While
some suggestions are contradictory or uncertain due to lack of extensive written and physical evidence in
many cases, every member of society appeared to have had the right to proper burials (Sumer and the
Sumerians). Gender, age, and social status appeared to indicate what type of burial one would receive as
well as what kinds of objects would be distributed with them (Land of No Return). Postmortem bodies
were most commonly wrapped in a carpet, linen, or mat and then placed into graves, but occasionally reed
or clay coffins were utilized. The opportunity to receive a coffin burial might have been tied to certain
religious cults or, possibly, to higher wealth and social status. Rather unique and detail-oriented practices
were popular in Sumer as well, like child corpses being buried in vessels or loosely in the soil, women
being buried on their left sides, and men being buried on their right sides. Bodies were also interred in a
flexed position with the hands covering the face (Sumer and the Sumerians).

Grave goods were a key element in burial rituals and piety practices (Egypt, Greece, and Rome). The
Sumerians believed that the afterlife was very similar to mortal life, so earthly goods and comforts like

jewelry, weapons, furniture, tools, pottery, personal seals, clothing, and game pieces were provided in
tombs. The objects that were buried with the dead were appropriately representative to the lives and
careers that the deceased persons led, like weapons for soldiers, musical instruments for musicians,
fishing hooks/spears for fishermen, and saws or chiseling tools for carpenters (Sumer and the Sumerians).
Larger quantities of grave objects or the provision of more expensive goods typically implied that the
dead individual was wealthier, more powerful, or a more prominent member of society. This was likely
reserved for kings (lugels) or possibly for religious leaders. The Royal Cemetery of Ur, undoubtedly the
largest and wealthiest temple from ancient Sumer, supports this hypothesis. Additionally, social status
rather than virtue seemed to determine how pleasurable life in the underworld would be for an individual
(Land of No Return).

In contrast to the Sumerians, the ancient Egyptians expressed fairly positive outlooks on life, death, and
the afterlife. Living in the Nile region, the Egyptians were quite isolated from the rest of the world, which
created a sense of security as well as beliefs in cultural supremacy. The Egyptians also held a strong
belief in Maat, or truth and justice, and believed that living a good life would most likely result in life
after death and successful admittance into the underworld (Osiris: Death of a God).

Death was a normal, well accepted, and almost positive concept to the Egyptians. In fact, this civilization
possessed an almost unnatural obsession with the afterlife, spending most of their lives preparing for the
world beyond mortality (Death, Burial, and Afterlife). This is evident in the fact that pyramid
construction usually began early in life and continued until death. Additionally, the Book of the Dead, a
compilation of stories, spells, and responses to important afterlife questions, was an extremely popular
item among the common folk. This mass produced literary work could be found and purchased in almost
any market place (Osiris: Death of a God).

Regarding death, burial, and the afterlife, in early Egyptian history, only pharaohs were blessed with large
tombs and eternal life in the underworld (Hieroglyphs). However, as history progressed to the Middle
Kingdom, common people were eventually granted the opportunity to build tombs for themselves and to
receive an afterlife as well. Unlike Sumerian beliefs, the dead were thought to live a more pleasurable and
carefree lifestyle in the afterlife than what was experienced in the mortal world. Visions and wishes of
what the life in the Land to the West, or Field of Reeds, would be like were often painted on tomb
walls (Osiris: Death of a God).

Pyramid building was a highly considered process that literally lasted a lifetime. The pointed shape of
pyramids was designed to resemble a staircase that would lead to the heavens (Death, Burial, and
Afterlife). According to the Pyramid Texts, A staircase to heaven is laid for him (the dead) so that he
may mount up to heaven thereby. Tombs had several main compartments: a burial chamber where the
body was placed, a chapel for family members to bring offerings, and storage rooms to hold piety
offerings. Pyramids were filled with absolutely incredible wealth, being richly stocked with pots that
would hold food or drink, stone vessels, jewelry, statues, artwork, gold, copper and ivory items, food,
libations, and occasionally war weapons if the deceased person was in the military (Egypt, Greece, and
Rome). Just like Sumerian beliefs, the Egyptians believed that physical objects of the mortal world needed
to be placed with the mummy inside the tomb for the deceased to experience the same pleasures in the
afterlife.

Mummification was a defining aspect of ancient Egyptian culture as well as a crucial process in gaining
passage into the afterlife (Egypt, Greece, and Rome). The entire process of mummification, or the dried
preservation of a dead body, took approximately seventy days from the time of death. First, the brain and
all internal organs, excluding the heart, were removed from the body. Each organ was then impregnated
with natron, which was a naturally occurring mineral salt that soaked up any liquids within body
structures. Next, the abdomen was cleaned and rubbed with palm wine, and was then filled with myrrh,

cassia (both were plant materials), and a variety of spices. The fully evacuated body was allowed to dry
for forty days in a natron bath (Egyptian Materials). After the drying out process, the body was inserted
with linen or sawdust to retain bodily shape (Egypt, Greece, and Rome). The preserved body was then
wrapped in linen sheets, with the organs being swathed and packed separately. Finally, a crafted funerary
mask was placed over the face, which reflected the mortal appearance of the individual, and then the
mummy was placed in a sarcophagus. The sarcophagus was then transported to the tomb and laid in its
final resting place for eternity.

The Egyptians believed that the soul consisted of three components that were released upon death: the ka,
the ba, and the ahk. The ka was essentially a spiritual duplicate of the deceased person that still lived after
death. This entity would remain with the physical body and required mortal needs like food and drink to
sustain itself. The ba represented the personality and vitality of the dead. It could depart from the body
and wander around the mortal world during the day, but it needed to return at nightfall. Finally, the ahk
was the eternal soul that was created immediately following death. This soul element left the body in the
tomb and lived with the gods either in the underworld or in the heavens (Hieroglyphs).

Gaining entrance into the underworld to obtain the much sought-after afterlife was a very complex and
stressful process. Upon entering the underworld, the dead were judged by Osiris, the god of the dead. This
was quite significant since the dead needed to be accepted by Osiris in order to receive successful
admission into the land beyond the west (Osiris: Death of a God). As described in the Book of the
Dead, Osiris would preside in weighing a deceased persons heart against Maat (in the form of a feather)
to determine whether or not he/she could enter the afterlife. People first had to pass several tests to
proceed towards their eternal futures, including proving that they had not killed anyone, stolen anything,
committed adultery, or had sexual relations with a young boy. They could never have slighted a pharaoh,
trespassed onto someone elses property, or altered grain measurements either (Egypt, Greece, and
Rome). If these requirements were met, then the heart would be weighed against the Maat feather to

determine whether sins outweighed goodness. If the scale tilted in favor of sin, then a mythological
monster would consume the dead individual. However, if goodness were heavier, then the deceased
would be granted admittance into the Field of Reeds.

As far as the ancient Greeks, views towards life, death, and the underworld were not necessarily entirely
positive or negative in nature. Concepts of death and the afterlife were mainly considered to be miserably
boring, unchanging, and drab (Greek Death). Every citizen of Greece was admitted into the underworld of
Hades, regardless of social status, sex, or righteousness.

In Homeric definitions, death is the departure of the psyche from the body (House of Hades). The psyche,
or soul, would depart from either the mouth or a gaping wound, which supported theories of natural death
as well as inflicted death. The Greeks based their ideas of death highly around their mythological beliefs
(Greek Death). The bow and arrows of Apollo, the god of light and archer of the Olympians, would
deliver a painless - and explainable death to mortals (Greek Mythology).

Unique post-mortem beliefs existed in this ancient society as well. For instance, the Greeks believed that
corpses were highly polluting (Pollution of Death). When death occurred in a household, a cypress
branch was hung on the door to warn people of deaths presence and to alert them that contagion was in
the house. A bowl of water was also placed outside the doorstep to cleanse and to purify anyone who paid
visit to the household. Additionally, for the most part, only close family and women over sixty years of
age were permitted to enter the house of a deceased person (Greek Death).

Death was very much a family affair. The family of a deceased person had to prepare the body
(prosthesis) by rubbing it in sacred oil, clothing it, and wrapping it in a linen sheet (House of Hades).
Then the family had to transport the body and to lay it in its final resting place within the ground. While
undertakers existed in ancient Greece, family members were definitely the most involved in post-life

practices, if not the only ones involved (Greek Death). The Greeks did not enjoy the concept of giving
their dead relatives over to strangers, both because it was deemed disgraceful to the family and because
the deceased individual needed his/her familys help to secure successful entrance into the underworld.

Grieving was a vital and definitive aspect surrounding death that typically lasted for several weeks. In
fact, the grieving process, particularly at funerals, was rather melodramatic. Both men and women would
tear out their hair and beat their foreheads with uncontainable sorrow (Greek Death). This particular
culture held a strong belief that the dead took great pleasure in illustrations of over-the-top mortal grief
towards their passing.

Following prosthesis, the family and grievers would accompany the corpse to its burial ground, which
was symbolic of beginning ones travels to the afterlife with the support of family and friends (Greek
Death). If the deceaseds family were wealthy enough, the corpse would be laid in a wooden coffin before
being placed in the ground. However, this was definitely more rare, both for the general lack of wealth in
Greek society (the Greeks viewed death as being corruptive) and due to scarcity of wood. Cremation was
even more rare, being much more prestigious than traditional burial. Great war heroes were typically
cremated since warriors were highly regarded in Greek society. Ashes would be placed in an urn and
would then be buried. A grave marker of some fashion, often a sculpture of the deceased in a domestic
setting with family members, would also be placed atop the buried container (Greek Customs).

Standard with other cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, the comfort and wellbeing of the dead
depended upon the livings provisions of grave goods. The Greeks also believed that the dead prospered
from taking perishable and non-perishable materials with them to the afterlife, all of which needed to be
placed directly in the graves with the dead (Greek Death). Common gifts included wreaths made of
myrtle branches, olive oil, colored sashes, fine fabrics, cake, and wine.

The Greeks possessed full faith in the existence of an afterlife as well. Their particular underworld was
sometimes referred to as Hades, named for the mythological god of the dead. Hades was the most hated
of all gods, not only because he had the morbid task of ruling the dead in the depths of the underworld,
but also because he famously stole Persephone, Demeters daughter, to make her his bride (Greek
Mythology). Upon death, dead souls first had to cross the River Styx in order to enter the underworld. The
ferryman of the dead, Charon, patrolled the Styx and was often paid with gifts or coins to ensure a dead
persons passage (Burial Customs). Once past this river, the dead entered Hades and were reunited with
family members who had already passed (Greek Death).

The underworld was a place of eternal darkness where the dead lead monotonous lives of absolute
cheerlessness. The afterlife was a boring, dreadful, and never changing existence. This unavoidable
sentence was given to every individual, regardless of social status, military duty, or wealth. Additionally,
everyone was treated equally in the afterworld, regardless of what type of life that they held in the mortal
world (Greek Death). Hades was therefore a place of unavoidable misery for all, which was an
appropriate continuation of the Greeks mortal belief in democracy.

Death and the afterlife were considerably defining elements of ancient Mediterranean societies. While
particular perspectives, practices, and beliefs greatly differed amongst these three ancient civilizations,
each believed in some form of life after death and recognized the importance of providing grave goods
at tombs. Whether negative or positive, trusting or fatalistic, or democratic versus societally oriented,
ancient Sumer, Egypt, and Greece possessed rich cultural rituals and unique philosophies surrounding the
concepts of death, underworlds, and eternal life.

Citations:
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Book of the Dead
Buxton, Richard. Complete World of Greek Mythology. First ed. Thames & Hudson, 2004. Print.
Crawford, Harriet E. W. Sumer and the Sumerians. Second ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.
Epic of Gilgamesh
Ferguson, John. Donna C. Kurtz and John Boardman. Greek Burial Customs. (Cornell University Press,
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Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. Second ed.
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