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Utopian Motifs in Early Greek Concepts of the Afterlife*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2017

Diana Burton
Diana Burton*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper explores the use of utopian motifs in early Greek concepts of the afterlife. The notion of a paradisiacal existence for selected heroes after death is widespread in Greek thought, going back at least as far as Hesiod, and appearing in such diverse sources as Pindar, the Orphic gold leaves, Attic comedy, and Lucian. Such idyllic afterlives share various features common to Lewis Mumford’s ‘utopias of escape’ (The Story of Utopias, London, 1922, 15), such as the absence of pain and toil, plentiful and self-supplying food and drink, the company of one’s peers, and so forth. They also share the utopian ideals of selective and restricted citizenship – although the requirements for entry may vary. The popularity of eschatological utopias is associated with the theme of a lost ‘Golden Age’ and the consequent assumption of the inevitable decline of human societies. Although often regarded as escapist fantasies, eschatological utopias do react, often critically, to perceived issues in the societies that constructed them. Their unreal nature is regarded as problematic, and through their association with Kronos and the Golden Age they exemplify the dangers of anomia. But they also provide a means by which an individual can preserve his consciousness and identity in death.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 50 , November 2016 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
© The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2017 

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Footnotes

*

This paper was given as a research seminar at Victoria University of Wellington in September 2015; I am grateful to my colleagues for their helpful discussion, and particularly to James Kierstead for some useful thoughts about origins, and to Jeff Tatum and the journal’s readers for their suggestions.

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