In five pages the attitudes of death regarding the ancient societies of Greece and Rome are compared in a discussion of customs and rituals. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
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has died. Much of the cultures beliefs can be found in their attitude toward their dead and the presentation of the dead body and the departed ones soul into the
afterlife. Such could be said for the early Grecians and the Romans. In fact, it can be said that the comparative evidence indicates the attitudes toward death of both cultures.
The afterlife for the Grecian society was a mysterious event. The god of the underworld, Hades, presided over the afterlife. Dead souls
were escorted to the shores of the River Styx by Hermes, where they were received by the boatman Charon, who rowed them across the River Styx to Hades kingdom(Ancient Greek
Cultures, 2002). The Greeks believed that the soul leaves the body at death, and journeys to the Underworld where the souls had to pay tribute to the boatman to be
able to cross the river Styx and enter the Underworld. Once there, three judges called Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthus would judge the souls worth. If the soul was judged to
be evil, then the soul was doomed to remain in the underworld, but if the soul was deemed worthy, then it was sent to its eternal reward in the Elysian
Fields(Pearce, 2002). From early Greek accounts, then, one could easily conclude several things about the ordinary Grecians perspective on death. Firstly, death
was not the end of everything. It was viewed as a transition into another dimension or world. The good soul had the option of returning, but the bad soul did
not. Secondly, there is a reward in the afterlife for the good one has achieved during the physical lifetime. In Greek