|
Knowing about the
unique realms
of the
Underworld
is tremendously important as these
facets
exist deep within the
sphere of luminescence,
serving as
guides
on the
Journey
which the
Beholder of Life
travels
on.
Water
has always signified the
eternal flow of consciousness,
streaming along the
passageways
and
caverns
of the
illuminated Soul.
|
'Sweet
endless rivers run thy gauntlet hand by me, share in
the nature of the hallowed mirth in signs, creating
the Shaman's rhythm far deep in Soul, many
phrases turn the Key to shiny Smiles' |
Hades has
five
special
Rivers
flowing
through, all with
unique
personalities, mirroring certain
qualities of the psyche;
Acheron (river of sorrow)
Cocytus (river of lamentation)
Phlegethon (river of fire)
Lethe (river of forgetfulness)
Styx (river of hate)
The
Styx forms the
boundary between the
upper
and lower worlds, mirroring the
conscious
and
subconscious.
The
Cocytus and
Acheron are mentioned in
Aeschylus'
Agamemnon, when
Cassandra gives
warning of murder, adding to the
sorrow and
lamentation to come.
The
Cocytus also appears in
the great thesis of
Dante Alighieri -
The Divine Comedy.
Inferno XXXIV,
verses 7, 10-19
|
He from
before me moved and made me stop,
Saying: ‘Behold Dis, and behold the place,
Where thou with fortitude must arm
thyself.’…
The Emperor of
the kingdom dolorous,
From his mid breast forth issued from the
ice;
And better with a giant I compare
Than do the
giants with those arms of his;
Consider now how great must be that whole,
Which unto such a part conforms itself.
Were he as
fair once, as he now is foul,
And lifted up his brow against his Maker,
Well may proceed from him all tribulation.
O, what a
marvel it appeared to me,
When I beheld three faces on his head!
The one in front, and that vermilion was;
Two were the
others, that were joined with this,
Above the middle part of either shoulder,
And they were joined together at the crest;
And the
right-hand one seemed ‘twixt white and
yellow;
The left was such to look upon as those,
Who come from where the Nile falls
valley-ward.
Underneath
each came forth two mighty wings,
Such as befitting were so great a bird;
Sails of the sea I never saw so large.
No feathers
had they, but as of a bat,
Their fashion was; and he was waving them,
So that three winds proceeded forth
therefrom.
Thereby
Cocytus wholly was congealed.
With six eyes did he weep, and down three
chins,
Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody
drivel.
At every mouth
he with his teeth was crunching,
A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
So that he three of them tormented thus. |
Descriptions of the
Underworld
can be found in
Homer's
Iliad and
Odyssey, and also in
Hesiod.
In the
Odyssey,
the
Underworld
is cited beyond
the western horizon.
Odysseus is instructed by
the sorceress
Circe to cross the
wide ocean. With
assistance from the
North wind
he reaches the
Underworld
by ship from
Circe's island. Further
along the line, the
ghosts of the Suitors
who
have perished are herded there by
Hermes
Psychopompus, the legendary
guide of the Dead, who
herds
them through the
hollows of the Earth, beyond
Oceanus,
encircling the
Earth,
and through the gates of the
setting Sun
to their final resting place in
Hades.
The
Homeric Hymns
and the
lyrical poet
Pindar
introduce the
paradisiacal
realm of Elysium where the
Virtuous
were sent after death. The blessed
afterlife was also promised to the
initiates
of the
ancient Mysteries.
One could enter the
Underworld
at various
locations. It is alleged that a
specific
and
elusive
cave in
Sparta is a
point of entry. To get into the main
areas of the
Underworld
one has to
cross the
river
Acheron/Styx, and be
ferried across
by
Charon, who
charged an
obolus, a
small coin as a fee.
Charon's obol
was placed in the mouth of the
Passenger.
Across the
rivers
there awaits
Cerberus, the
three-headed Guardian dog
of
Hades. The
twelfth
and last task of
Heracles was to retrieve
Cerberus
from his patch and bring him to
Eurystheus.
The
Argonaut
Orpheus, a
musician of great
serenity,
lost his wife to be,
Eurydice after
she was
bitten by a snake. He descended to the
Underworld
and passed
Cerberus and
Charon by
charming them
with his
kithara (lyre)
in order to plead
Hades and
Persephone
for
Eurydice’s return.
Persephone
took
heart
for him, and he was allowed to have her back,
on one
condition;
if he reached the
living realm
again without looking over his shoulder.
He started the journey back and
all was well
until at the last minute he became
fearful,
as he was
unable to hear his wife's footsteps.
He turned back and in doing so, caught
the
last glimpse of Eurydice's Spirit,
as she faded back into the
Underworld.
Navigating the
infinite reaches
of the
grand Underworld
teaches the majestic
Beholder of Life
to always
strive on the sacred Journey
and trust in one's
instinct
and
intuition.
All the many
heroes
and
heroines
who have ventured into the
Realm of Hades,
together with the
occupants,
inspire the individual to new and
fresh heights of
magnificent Achievements!
Residents of the Underworld
Aeacus -
Cerberus -
Charon -
Erinyes -
Hades
Hecate -
Hypnos -
Minos -
Moirae
Persephone -
Rhadamanthys -
Thanatos
Realms of the Underworld
Acheron -
Asphodel Fields -
Cocytus -
Elysion
Erebus -
Lethe -
Phlegethon -
Styx -
Tartarus
Prisoners of the Underworld
The Danaides –
Ixion –
Sisyphus
Tantalus -
The
Titans -
Tityus
Visitors to the Underworld
Aeneas –
Heracles –
Hermes –
Odysseus
Orpheus –
Pirithous –
Theseus –
Dionysus
|
