The realm of the dead
Related to this urban world were the cemeteries (Greek necropoleis) which were “beyond the walls” {extra muros). It was here that the urban dwellers buried their dead or their ashes, and after the ceremonies they withdrew to the city.
The rites differed from region to region, but festivities and monuments formed an essential part of the celebration of taking leave of the departed. While the tombs of the dead became increasingly lavish, Hades enjoyed little more than an occasional altar on the edge of sanctuaries dedicated to Demeter. It is not insignificant that, because of the abduction of Kore/Persephone, Hades thus appears on the fringes of the mysteries at Eleusis (which are the oldest in Greece, but cannot be traced back to the Bronze Age). Death and the Beyond were intrinsically related to fertility and the earth; mysteries were frequently related to issues of liminality, and the line separating the dead and the living is among the most liminal. In the classical world, the gods of the dead were not appreciated, but the ancestors were. And yet in the urban environment of the classical world, both the gods of the dead and the ancestors were literally outside of society.
More on the topic The realm of the dead:
-
Conflictology -
Ecology -
Economy -
Finance -
History -
Law -
Medicine -
Philosophy -
Religious studies -