Lecture 22: Haunted Houses

Question 1

explain plinys (younger) haunted house

Answer 1

earliest haunted house story

there was a large house in athens that was haunted. you would hear chains at night that seemed to get closer from the ghost of a man who was old, skinny, filthy, long beard with bad hair

ppl who lived here were kept awake by fear and then they got sick because they never slept

house remained abandoned until athenodorus

Question 2

what did pliny say was worse than the ghost himself

Answer 2

the fear was greater than the cause of the fear

imagination runs wild

Question 3

explain athenodorus’ account of plinys haunted house

Answer 3

he is skeptical so he sets his stuff up for the night and then keeps his brain busy, then he hears the ghost and then the ghost asks him to follow and he does and then outside he randomly dissapeared

athenodorus put a marker there where he vanished and then the next mornign found his corpse, he rhen buried the body properly and allowed the soul to rest then the house was normal

ghost was murder victim - chains were to prevent him from chase

Question 4

compare haunted house in lucians philopseudes

Answer 4

talks about the attack of a shapeshifting ghost thats attacking because it hasnt been helped in so long

used egyptian spells with bones to cause the ghost to stop

Question 5

compare haunted house in platus mostellaria

Answer 5

the abandoned house becomes vacant and haunted

host killed a guest and stuck his body in the ground

ghost wanted a real funeral