Concepts of Death and Afterlife in Ancient Greece - Research Paper Example

Historically, every community and nation has had a philosophical worldview of life after death. There are different opinions and it ranges from different communities. No one knows for sure with a high degree of certainty about what happens when a person dies. However, due to the sensitivity of the issue, it has been left to people of great knowledge and high mystical prowesses to decipher the issues relating to death and the afterlife. Since religion and spirituality vary, there are variations of cultural trends and activities that go on to define the views on the afterlife.

This section of the paper would focus on general ideas and concepts relating to death and the afterlife. It would form the fundamental framework within which the rest of the paper would be examined concerning Greek concepts of death and the afterlife.

Masurian states provide a very strong depiction of death in his description of a situation. “A man is dying and as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside his own physical body but still in the immediate environment and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval”.

This point of view about death seems to be the central and fundamental idea of what most people feel and think in the case of death. Most cultures and most movies seem to show a situation where a person goes out of his physical body during death. The soul stands aside and watches as other people continue to try to make a dead person come back to life. This is a depiction of most cultural views of how the soul leaves the body. This forms the basis of the duality that surrounds death and the afterlife. This kind of duality has its roots in the history of societies around the world, including Greek culture and Greek society.

Many religious movements continue to connect their teachings and ideas to the idea that the soul leaves the body and moves elsewhere in a “world of souls”. Different concepts and ideas are developed in line with the transmigration of the soul and the treatment of the mortal remains of a dead person. This forms the basis of social interactions and discussions of death and its related matters.

The fundamental concept is that life is physical, but when people die, life does not end there. This is because most cultures believe that the soul in a body is the breath of God that is put into the body of a person, hence, the soul proceeds back to where it came from.

In some movements, it is believed that the soul goes into another world or the netherworld as some cultures state it. In other cultures, there are discussions about the soul having to be reborn in a human form that is somewhat similar to the form that the dead individual in question hands. Muslims and Christians believe that the soul is put in the human body by the Supreme Creator of the world. Hence, when the body dies, the soul would have to move on to a different world where the Creator would have total control over the body. The Creator, therefore, controls the afterlife and examines the souls, and treats them according to His will. On the other hand, some people in Eastern and Oriental religions like Buddhists believe in rebirth. Primarily, Buddhists believe in the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama as a kind of iconic figure with supernatural powers who relieves humanity of suffering.

There are several opinions about the way death is perceived and examined. There are many elements and facades within which society would choose to examine death and its after-effects. This include amongst other things:
- Death as a transmission of the soul of a person.
- Death as a process that requires the proper disposal of the mortal remains of a person.
- Death as an implication for the wider society.
- Death and its linkage with rebirth and reincarnation.
- Death as a philosophical idea and concept.