Afterlife Flashcards
(6 cards)
Where were Roman cemeteries?
Outside the sacred boundary of a city: forbidden by Roman law (except emperors), to avoid disease.
What were Roman tombs like?
Roman families would often have a tomb where many of their name would be buried.
A tomb would often have an inscription: date of birth & lifespan, family ties, political offices/military victories achieved, Roman values the person possessed, philosophical beliefs, (sometimes) an engraved relief.
What was the significance of a Roman burial?
A proper burial was required for a person to access the afterlife.
A coin would be placed on the hand or in the mouth of the deceased to pay the ferry fee to cross the River Styx and access the afterlife (showed a direct link between the living and the underworld).
What were Roman beliefs about the Underworld?
When someone died, Romans believed that their soul separated from their body and went to the Underworld.
When a soul reached the Underworld, they believed that you will have to cross the River Styx to enter the Underworld.
The coin will be used for the soul to pay the ferryman, Charon.
Once on the other side, the soul would encounter Cerberus, a three-headed dog who guard the afterlife (prevented the living from entering and the dead escaping).
What were Roman beliefs about the afterlife?
Having enter the Underworld, the soul would be judged on how its life had been lived - once a soul is judged it is offered a drink of forgetfulness from the River Lethe (to forget its past life).
The most virtuous, heroic and bravest would end up in Elysium: fields of paradise(like Christian heaven).
The large majority of people would end up in the Asphodel Fields: not unpleasant, but not great either (similar to Catholic ideas of Purgatory - but the Asphodel Fields were permanent).
The most evil people and criminals would be tortured for eternity in Tartarus: the Roman equivalent of Hell.
What was deification?
A mortal becoming a god.
This can be chosen by the gods themselves (eg: Hercules) / by the Roman senate (eg: Caesar & Augustus).
