Salvete
I just finished translating this piece into English. It is something I wrote while thinking about Gilgamesh, Herakles and the eternal search for immortality. Its open for critique an debate.
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The search for Immortality
Throughout history man was always fascinated by the very notion of eternal life, a way to escape the clutches of Death. In almost every culture, this desire to escape Death, is present. Every conscious being doesn’t want to die and wants to life forever. With humans, this desire is mostly present in literature, mythology and religion. Every religion on Earth promises an afterlife, a chance of immortality. With some cultures, this was transparent, but with others no so much. The Hellenic and Roman cultures are examples of that kind where the quest for immortality is not so transparent as in others like in the Sumerian mythology with the epic of Gilgamesh as a prime example for the desire to live forever.
The Hellenes had no epic like that of the epic of Gilgamesh. But they did had something else which shows up in almost every Mediterranean culture. That is that the Underworld is no fun to be in. That’s why there were so many mystery cults that promised a better place in the Underworld if they were initiated like in the Eleusinian Mysteries and others. All what these initiations did for these initiated was to elevate them beyond their normal conscience, they transcended to a different level of consciousness. The Hellenes, the Romans, the Sumerians and other polytheistic cultures knew that only the Gods are eternal and can bestow immortality upon a mortal being. This is only done with a few select people who elevated themselves above all other humans through actions. Most of them are initiated in certain mystery cults like Herakles was initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries. But most of these select few had divine parentage. Akhilleos/ Akhilles had Thetis as his mother. Herakles had Zeus as his father, as did Kastor and Polydeukes. That is not the only thing that separated them from the rest. What separated them from us is how they lived their lives. Perseus had the same father as Herakles, Kastor and Polydeukes and is only remembered as a hero, a daimone, while Theseus had Poseidon as his father (according to some), but he had to do with the status of hero, but not a hero god like Herakles. Herakles was the greatest of them all, had human flaws, but met a gruesome end.
Akhilles separated himself from the rest at Troy, but in death he was remembered as a pan-Hellenic hero. Akhilles was immortal, but his heel wasn’t. When Odysseos meets him in the Underworld, Akhilles has a different attitude than in life. He wishes that he was rather a slave than to be a shadow in the Underworld. This reflects how people perceived the Underworld, afterlife in general as a fearsome place, full of terrors and darkness. Like Gilgamesh, all men, including half gods and heroes are afraid of dying. Mystery religions are more than dealing with the afterlife. They create a certain connection between mortals and Gods and with the afterlife that other cults don’t have. The Hellenes were busy trying to secure their afterlife while still enjoying their lives. Life on itself wasn’t all fun, so they could only make the best of it. The lesson Gilgamesh eventually learned when he returned empty-handed is that life is nothing if you haven’t lived it. Hellenes as Romans knew this, which is why they tried to enjoy their live as much as they could before they died.
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valete
Quintus