1. Book 11The Book of the Dead Afterlife in Ancient Greece

2. All Greeks believed in some form of afterlife • Unlike our modern understanding of ‘hell’, Hades was not primarily a place of punishment • However, it was considered to be cold and gloomy and the rest of eternity was bleak • The only people who could avoid eternity in Hades were those granted divinity, in which case they live on Mt. Olympus with the other gods and goddesses • Gradually, concepts of reward and punishment were enlarged

3. Those who faced ‘punishment’ in the afterlife endured eternal frustration of effort (Sisyphus & Tantalus) • The concept of judgment contains an obvious ethical message- act justly in this life. (resembles later Christian views of life and death) • Judaism and Christianity developed from relatively minor cults into major religious institutions replacing the belief system of ancient Greece