A comparison of the death-mythology between greek and norse traditions. Where are similarities and differences between the myths?
Structure
A. Introduction
B. Main Part
1. Norse mythology
I. Life before death and belief in Norse gods
II. Goddess Hel
III. Death
a. Funeral
b. Human sacrifice
IV. Afterlife
a. Valhalla
b. Hel
2. Greek mythology
I. Life before death and belief in Greek gods
II. God Hades
III. Death
IV. Afterlife
C. Comparison Summary
D. Sources
1. Books
2. Internet sources
A. Introduction
“Ósnjallr Ѱ hyggsk munu ey lifa ef hann við víg varask, en elli gefr honum engi frið, ϸott honum geirar gefi” (Hávamál, 16)
“A cowardly man thinks he will ever live, if warfare he avoids; but old age will give him no peace, though spears will spare him” (Hávamál, 16)
Death is omnipresent and inevitable. In the course of one´s life everybody comes into contact with it. At the latest when a loved person dies or if you´re facing death by yourself, a question occurs. What happens after death? Mankind has been concerned with this question for millennia, probably ever since existing. Many different cultures and religions found their own answers to this question.
Atheists believe that after death, everything ends and that there is simply nothing. Buddhists believe in the never ending circle of rebirth, and Christians in the life after death. The ancient Greeks and Norsemen found their answers as well. Although, in this context, we can´t really speak of answers, rather of concepts and ideas, because nobody knows exactly what happens to one´s soul after you die. Furthermore, no one can tell who is right with their idea of the afterlife and no one can even tell if anyone is right. But through all this uncertainty and different imaginations of the life after death, it still plays an important role in many religions as it did in Norse and Greek mythology. Although the Greek and Norse mythology differ geographically and temporally from their creation, they have a lot in common. Not only are their gods quite similar, also their concept of life after death shows many similarities. Therefore it makes sense to compare these two mythologies and their concepts of afterlife.
B. Main Part
1. Norse mythology
What we today call Norse mythology was a form of religion with its own polytheistic world of gods and associated legends, sagas, tales, and songs. These stories and songs were collected and written down in a book the so-called “Edda” on which the beliefs of the Germanic tribes were based. Norse mythology developed in the bronze age around the 5th century BC in northern Europe and ended with the Christianization of the Germanic tribes. However this Christianization did not happen at once but took several centuries. Finally, in the middle of the 11th century AC the last tribes in Scandinavia were missionized (Simek, Rudolf: Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie. Stuttgart. Kröner. 1995).
I. Life before death and believe in Norse gods
In the beginnings of the Germanic tribes, people didn´t know such a thing as a state. They organized themselves in clans which were led by a Jarl or king (Hasenfratz, Hans-Peter: Die Germanen. Religion, Magie, Kult, Mythus. Erftstadt. Herder GmbH. 2007. p. 46). In Norse mythology, believers had a very close relationship to their gods, the Ases. They believed that the gods hold their saving hands above their heads. They were led by the gods, mainly by Odin, who is the so-called “all-high”. He is the leader of all the Germanic gods and lives in Asgard, the world of the gods (Simek. Lexikon. p. 293). The people paid homage to their gods with sacrifices, sometimes even human sacrifices in order to induce the gods benevolence and to show their submission (Rubel, Alexander: Religion und Kult der Germanen. Stuttgart. W. Kohlhammer GmbH. 2016. p. 31). Behavioral guidelines in the Edda regulated the living together within a clan. In the Hávamál, which is a part of the Edda, Odin´s experiences were written down. In these texts, the people found the values after which they should structure their life. For example in the lines 1 to 80, they could find how to behave as a guest or as a friend (Simek. Lexikon. p. 162). At that time, jurisdiction was exercised by the Jarl or king at the Thing. It is like a gathering of all members of a tribe. If someone brought a complaint against a member of his clan a Thing was convened. The legality of the complaint was then examined by the head of the clan and then the defendant was sentenced to a penalty (Simek. Lexikon. p. 386). Thieves, for example, were often sentenced to death by hanging and unchaste people were often drowned (Simek. Lexikon. p. 415).
II. Goddess Hel
Another deity beside Odin was the goddess Hel. In Norse mythology, Hel is the goddess of the underworld which is also called Hel. She is the daughter of Loki, who is the brother of Odin, and the giantess Angrboða. Her brothers are Fenrir1 and Jörmungandr2. Her appearance is described as gloomy and grim. (Simek: Lexikon. p. 168) When she was born, one half of her body was not covered with skin so that her bones were fully exposed. Due to that she is described to be black and pale at the same time. She grew up in Jotunheim, the land of the giants, where her mother was from until Odin decided that she should live in Asgard, the land of the Ases, where her father Loki was from. When she was still a child Odin banished her and sent her to Hel because the other Gods could not deal with the appearance of Hel. In Hel she quickly gained power over her new empire (https://www.gods-and-goddesses.com/norse/hel/). It is even said that her power became stronger than Odin´s. (https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/hel/).
However, not only Hel is responsible for the dead. There is another goddess, Rán, to which some of the dead go. She is the wife of the sea god Ægir. Their daughters are called the Ægris daughters and they are the ocean´s waves. Rán´s kingdom lies at the bottom of the sea and all people that drown in the seas go to her kingdom. She has a net and therewith fishes up the dead and brings them to the sea´s ground. Back in the times of the Germanic tribes, people often said that someone fell into Rán´s arms when they drowned (Simek. Lexikon. p. 323).
III. Death
For the Germanic death did not mean the absolute end, but it was seen as a transition to a different form of being.
a) Funeral
At the beginning it was customary for the Germanics to bury their deceased in hill graves which were mostly intended for the whole clan (Simek. Lexikon. p. 139). Grave goods played a major role in this tradition. Ships and animals, especially horses, were often buried with the dead, and the dead man's weapons were also an important addition because one thought the dead would make use of the grave goods in the beyond. A good example of this is a grave found in southern Norway in 1903, the identity of which has not yet been clarified. It is the most elaborately designed grave that has ever been found and therefore also the most spectacular. In the burial mound a whole ship made of oak was found. It is 21 meters long and 5 meters wide. A burial chamber lined with tapestries was built on the ship. In addition to grave goods such as knives and looms, there were skeletons of 15 horses, two oxen and four dogs. However, since no valuable items such as jewelry were found, it is believed that the grave had already been robbed. In general, the graves were usually built so that the entrance lies in the south and the burial chamber itself in the north which shows that the assumption that Hel is in the north was widespread (Bernhard, Maier. Die Religion der Germanen. Götter – Mythen – Weltbild. München. C. H. Beck oHG. 2003. p. 104, 105).
In later centuries, cremation became part of the funeral rites of the Germanic tribes. Thereby, two different forms of cremation can be distinguished. In one form of cremation, the body was put on a boat with grave goods. Next the boat was launched into the sea, set on fire, and it sailed away. The other way was to put the body on a boat with grave goods and burn it down on land. Afterwards a hill grave was built on the ashes (Simek. Lexikon. p. 51, 52). This form of cremation was described in a travelogue by Ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveler. In his writings he described the burial of a rich Varangian on the Volga. According to his description, the body was kept in a coffin for ten days until the tribal members had finished sewing clothes for the funeral for him. Then the assets of the deceased were collected and divided into three parts. One part was intended for the deceased's family as a form of heritage. Another part was used for sewing the clothes for the funeral and the last part was used to brew Nabid, a drink similar to Mead, which should be drunk on the day of the funeral. The deceased was also supposed to be followed by one of his servants to death. Usually, a slave volunteered for it. Due to that, a slave girl was going to be killed and buried with him. When the preparations were finished, a ship specially built for the funeral was fetched from the nearby river. The ship was furnished with all kinds of valuable items, such as a burial chamber with Byzantine carpets and pillows. Then the corpse was dressed and food was brought onto the ship. Afterwards the chosen slave was brought on board and killed. A dog, two horses and two cows were also killed and brought onto the ship. Finally, the person closest friend set fire to the ship and it burned down. A burial mound was then built on the ashes of the ship (Simek. Glaube der Germanen. p. 117 – 122). Of course it should be remembered, that this elaborate form of burial was only reserved for rich people.
b) Human sacrifice
In some cases people did not die in war or of natural causes, but were sacrificed or sentenced to death. Although human sacrifices, as opposed to weapon or animal sacrifice, were much less common, they ought to be mentioned. As the Germanic tribes often made their sacrifices on bogs, one can draw conclusions about the course of the sacrificial ceremonies from the good conservation of the corpses. Being sacrificed to the gods was considered an honor. Contrary to the widespread assumption that the Germanics held several sacrificial ceremonies within one year, the writer Tacitus' records prove that several related tribes came together for a common sacrificial ceremony several years apart. They met in a consecrated forest and then rendered a human sacrifice there on behalf of the community (Simek, Rudolf: Der Glaube der Germanen. Kevelaer/Butzon & Bercker. 2005. p. 52).
Further human sacrifices were often made in the course of a death within a clan. When the jarl of a clan died, it was often customary that one of his slaves or servants followed him into the beyond. The selection of those who followed their owner was often on a voluntary basis, as it was seen as an honor. When a person agreed to do so, two slaves were assigned to guard him so that he couldn't change his mind. They washed his feet and he was then brought to the dead body of his Jarl, held and killed by a woman who was often referred to as a Death Angel (Simek. Glaube der Germanen. p. 118, 119).
IV. Afterlife
When someone died, there were mainly two places where the dead would go depending on how they died, Walhalla or the underworld Hel.
a) Valhalla
Valhalla was something like a paradise for all the fallen warriors. It is a hall in a part of Asgard, called Glaðsheimr, and so large that all the fallen warriors found their place there since the beginning of time. Spears and shields are attached all over the roof and the walls of Valhalla. It belongs to Odin who crowds all the fallen around him here. When the dead come to Valhalla they are called the Einherjar and they come back to life there. The Valkyries3 transfer them to Valhalla and are also responsible for the catering of them. There is a boar called Sæhrímnir whose meat is cooked by the chef Andhrímnir in the kettle Eldhrímnir. Due to the fact that the boar comes back to life every day, there is always enough to eat. Except of Odin, who drinks wine, all the residents of Valhalla drink Mead which comes from the goat Heiðrun standing on the roof of the hall. There are two wolves, Genri and Freki, lying by Odin´s feet who he feeds with his food. When the warriors are not drinking and eating, they go outside to fight sometimes even until dead. But in the end of the day they all sit together again and eat. As Valhalla is very big, it has 540 gates. One of these gates is called Valgrind through which the Einherjar go when they come to Valhalla. Though the Einherjar are not only here to have a good afterlife. The real reason why they are there is that Odin needs an army to defeat the Fenris wolf and the forces of the underworld when Raganrök4 starts (Simek. Lexikon. p. 454, 455).
b) Hel
If a person was not a warrior and died in a battle or war he did not have the opportunity to go to Valhalla. So when a person died because of natural causes, for example diseases or just because of old age, they go to Hel. In our use of language the word “Hel”, similar to the English word “hell”, has a negative connotation, but back in the times of Norse mythology “Hel” was not a place of punishment like we would say today. It was simply a place where the dead go and live as a kind of shadow. The people imagined Hel to be in the north. The way to it goes northwards and down. To get to Hel, one has to cross a bridge called Gjallarbrú, under which the river Slíðr or also called Gjǫll flows. The bridge is guarded by a maid who is called Moðguðr. Hel is surrounded by a kind of fence called Helgrindr that has a gate called Thrymgjöll. Within Hel there is a hall which is the home of the goddess Hel. The hall is called Éljúðnir which can be translated as “the wet” and her bed was called Kör “illness”. Hel has two servants, a man called Ganglati “the slow” and a woman called Ganglöt “the lazy”. These names led modern historians to the conclusion that Hel was considered a cold and humid place (Simek. Lexikon. p. 167, 168).
2. Greek mythology
As Norse mythology, Greek mythology was a form of religion with its own polytheistic world of gods. Unlike Norse mythology, the Greek one is not only based on one book, but there are several books in which Greek mythology is explained. The most important books are Homer´s Iliad5 and Odyssey6 as well as Hesiod´s Theogony7. The stories in these books come from the 18th century BC (https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Mythology/), which shows that the Greek mythology is several centuries older than the Norse one. Geographically, they also developed in very different locations. While Norse mythology developed in Northern Europe, Greek mythology developed in Greece, Southern Europe. With the conquest of Ancient Greece by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, the Greek mythology came to an end.
I. Life before death and believe in Greek gods
In the broadest sense, the form of government in ancient Greece can already be viewed as democratic. There were many City States, also called Polis, which were seen as an own country. The Greek felt obliged to worship their gods as it was believed that they had control over the course of their entire lives. It was believed that praying to them would protect one and they would make sure that one was fine. On the other hand, if one did not act in the interests of the gods or did not acknowledge them, people feared to be punished. (https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ancient-greeks-everyday-life-beliefs-and-myths/415). In the Greek polytheistic belief system, there was a head of the gods, called Zeus. He was more powerful than all other gods and regarded as a weather god (Michael Grant and John Hazel: Lexikon der antiken Mythen und Gestalten. München. Paul List Verlag. 1979. p. 423). The case of law in ancient Greece was quite similar to ours today. Defendants were brought to a court where the accusation was proven or refuted by evidence. In the case of serious theft, for example, it was allowed to kill the thief immediately after the crime or he was sentenced to death by a court. In the case of minor thefts, it was common that the thief had to pay back twice the value of what was stolen.
II. God Hades
In the beginning of Greek mythology the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades defeated their father as well as the Titans8. They decided to divide the world among themselves. Zeus became the ruler of the skies, Poseidon of the seas and Hades of the Underworld. (https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/hades/) But unlike Hel who rules the underworld by herself, he has someone by his side, his wife Persephone. (Grant and Hazel: Lexikon. p. 167) He abducted her because of her beauty (Grant and Hazel: Leikon. p. 330), made her eat the forbidden fruit pomegranate, and forced her therewith to stay in the underworld with him for one third of every year. (https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/hades/) Hades is the son of Cronus and Rhea. His brother Zeus and his sister Demeter are the parents of his wife Persephone. Hades is described as grim, cold hearted and merciless while being fair at the same time as well (Grant and Hazel: Lexikon. p. 167).
While Hades is ruler of the underworld, there is another god, who is said to be the personification of death. The god Thanatos (greek: θάνατος , thánatos, death). He is something like a death angel. He seeks for the people whose time has come, cuts them one wisp of hair to give it to Hades and then brings them to the underworld.
III. Death
In ancient Greece death was not really something bad or good it was simply an indispensable part of life. Thereby, the human mortality stands in contrast to the god´s immortality. (Mathias Pfeiffer: Tod und Jenseitsvorstellungen in der griechischen Antike. Religiöse, philosophische und medizinische Aspekte. München. Grin Verlag GmbH. 2007. p. 10)
The funeral process in ancient Greece can be divided into 3 steps, the Prothesis, the Ekphora, and the burial itself, which was called Interment. In Prothesis, it was the task of the relatives, especially the women, to prepare the body for the funeral. They had the task of washing the dead, anointed him, and dressed him for the funeral. After this had happened, the deceased was publicly laid out in his house so that relatives and friends could pay him their last respect which also included a joint lament for the dead. After three days of being laid out, the body was taken to the burial grounds outside the city. This part of the funeral was called Ekphore which can be equated with a funeral procession. While at the beginning, most of the dead were not cremated but the whole body was buried, this changed over time. However, cremation was almost exclusively reserved for the higher and wealthy social groups as it was very expensive. The dead were then buried either in burial mounds or crypts that were located in a cemetery. The dead usually received clay pots with food or jewelry as it was thought that the deceased would need something to eat on their journey to Hades and that the jewelry would help to ensure prosperity in the afterlife. Horses and dogs were sacrificed but not thrown into the grave. It was also customary to put a coin on the eyes of the deceased, the so-called Obolus, which was intended to pay the ferryman Charon who shipped the dead across the river Styx to Hades. The burial mounds were also equipped with a tombstone called “Stele” on which the name of the deceased was written. After the burial, a funeral meal was held, in earlier times at the grave, but later in the deceased's house. It was part of the Greek custom to care for the dead and to visit them. Annual funeral services were held at which sacrifices were made to commemorate the dead. If the last honor was not paid to somebody, it was believed that the souls of the dead would not find their way to Hades and would haunt the living as revenants. (Pfeiffer: Tod und Jenseits. p. 6 - 8)
IV. Afterlife
Unlike in Norse mythology there is only one place where the dead go to. There is a comparable place to Valhalla or better said Asgard which is called Olympus, but only the gods expect of the god Hades live there. In Greek mythology, the place where the dead go is also called Hades.
The people imagined Hades to be a dark and gloomy place at the end of the world, which is separated from it by the river Styx which means “hate” (Pfeiffer: Tod und Jenseits. p. 10, 11). The god Hermes guided the dead souls to Hades. This is why he is “associated with the transition from life to death”. However to get into Hades, you had to cross the river with a boat that belongs to the ferryman Charon. This is why he is “connected with the final integration into the world of the dead” (Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood: Reading Greek death: to the end of the classical period. Oxford. The American Journal of Philology. 1995. p. 346, 347). But a soul could only cross the river with the boat, when they could afford to pay Charon with an Obolus. If one did not have an Obolus, he would flatter around on the shores of Styx until Charon allowed them to cross the river with him which could take centuries. When you reached the other side of the river you arrived at the entrance to Hades which is guarded by the three-headed hellhound Cerberus. He ensures that no one dead leaves Hades and no one living enters it. (Sourvinou-Inwood: Reading Greek death. p. 309) From that moment on, you would live there as a shadow with no possibility to leave Hades. For a few dead who enjoyed the benevolence of the gods, the opportunity arose to ascend to Olympus or to go to the Elysium which is separated from the underworld by the river Lethe. The Elysium can be roughly equated to the Christian heaven due to the fact that the life there is described as idyllic and careless (Pfeiffer: Tod und Jenseits. p. 12). Hades and his wife Persephone live in a palace in Hades near the house of Thanatos.
Later in the 6th century BC, the underworld was expanded to include the judgment of the dead. Here the three judges Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aiakos decided over the fate of everyone. If you were a good person and acted in the spirit of the gods, you were sent to the Elysium. If you were an enemy of the gods or if you did not act in their favor during your lifetime, you were sent to Tartaros, a “terrible, lightless abyss” (Pfeiffer: Tod und Jenseits. p. 12) (Pfeiffer: Tod und Jenseits . p. 15). It was the deepest region of Hades where monsters lived. The people there are said to have lived in never-ending agony and eternal damnation. Tartaros is surrounded by the river Pyriphlegethon which is said to be a fire stream so that it was not possible to escape this place and therewith served as a kind of prison (Pfeiffer. Tod und Jenseits. p. 11)
[...]
1 Fenrir = Fenriswolf, was tied up by the Asen but frees himself and devours Odin when Ragnarök starts. (Simek. Lexikon. p. 92)
2 Jörmungandr = Midgardserpent a snake that lies around the human world Midgard. (Simek. Lexikon. p. 217)
3 Death demons who bring the death on battlefields to Valhalla (Simek. Lexikon p. 456)
4 Downfall of the gods (Simek. Lexikon. p. 321)
5 Poems about the Trojan war (https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Mythology/)
6 Odyssey´s voyage home after the Trojan war (https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Mythology/)
7 Descriptions about the Greek gods and the creation of human beings (https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Mythology/)
8 Gods in the form of giants who ruled the world in primeval times (Grant and Hazel: Lexikon. p. 410)
- Citar trabajo
- Anónimo,, 2020, The afterlife of Norse mythology compared to the afterlife of Greek mythology, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1025978
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