Ideas of the afterlife were woven into the fabric of the great ancient societies in

Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Cultural and societal impacts spanned the

continuum, from the overwhelming dread of the netherworld in Mesopotamia to the

attainment of eternal bliss in the eyes of the Egyptians. However, none of these beliefs were

based in the Judeo-Christian moral code; there was neither a heaven nor a hell in any of these

mythologies. Initially, the elite in these civilizations solely had a path to the afterlife, but over

time, as these societies evolved, all socioeconomic levels could attain life thereafter.

Regardless of their alignment of specific theological doctrines regarding the afterlife, the

great societies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome realized cultural shifts as the

attainment of the afterlife was accessible to every socioeconomic sector.

In Mesopotamia, the afterlife was a particularly gloomy prospect as an inescapable

reality that was not contingent on social status or moral behavior. Life in the underworld was

only a mere shadow of what life was like on Earth. In Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the

Netherworld, the underworld is depicted as a far worse existence than on Earth: “You should

not kiss your beloved child. You should not hit your son even if you are annoyed with him.

The outcry aroused would detain you in the netherworld.”1 The denizens of the netherworld

are deprived of earthly interactions, rendering them devoid of human emotions. In the Epic of

Gilgamesh, the underworld is depicted in equally dismal terms: “To the house wherein the

dwellers are bereft of light, where dust is their fare and clay their food.”2 Existence in the

afterlife is dark and meager, reducing the inhabitants to scavenging for dust. After a

Mesopotamian’s transition to the afterlife, their soul was manifested in the form of a ghost,

thus allowing them passage to Earth. The deceased person’s relatives gave offerings to

appease their ghost, much like in ancient Egypt. However, the Egyptians attended to the

1
Anonymous, “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld,” trans. Joachim Krecher, 2000,
http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1814.htm, 1.
2
Cooper, J. "The Fate of Mankind: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Mesopotamia." Death and the Afterlife:
Perspectives of World Religions, ed. Hiroshi Obayashi. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992, pp. 19-33.
tombs so the spirit of the owner would not starve in the afterlife or be forgotten. The

Mesopotamians also believed that a dead person would be judged in the underworld: “The

judgement was not based on moral behavior in life. It seems that only the possession of

wealth could impact the outcome.”3 In a rigidly hierarchical society such as ancient

Mesopotamia, this meant that only royalty and the elite would be judged favorably.

The ancient Egyptians had a much more positive perception of the afterlife than their

Mesopotamian counterparts. They imagined it was much like Earth, but a superior version. In

the afterlife, the deceased would not have to work in the fields, the crops would always be

abundant, and the land was always beautiful. The Egyptians prepared extensively for the

afterlife, as they saw it as a rebirth. In the Pyramid Texts of Unas, the deceased king is said to

have been reborn upon his death: “You have not gone dead, you have gone alive to sit on the

throne of Osiris.”4 After his death, he was not only reborn, but he was elevated to a semi-

divine status. The texts also incorporate the motif of the lotus, a common metaphor for rebirth

and the first plant that rose from the primeval mound of Earth: “Your scepter is in your hand,

that you may give orders to the living, the handle of your lotus-shaped scepter is in your

hand.”5 Unas’ authority as king transcends even death. The texts on the walls of the tombs

and on the coffins were meant to ward off evil spirits. For the Egyptians, the afterlife was a

process: one had to pass through the underworld, or Duat, to access the afterlife. In the

Pyramid Texts, Unas has to pass through numerous gates to get to the afterlife: “Prepare a

way for Unas that Unas may pass through the guard of demons with terrible faces!”6 Unas

must call upon the gods to ensure his safe passage into the afterlife. Later, in the New

Kingdom, the Book of the Dead would have served as a guidebook to passage to the afterlife.

3
Yasmina Wicks and Yasmina Wicks, “Death, the Afterlife, and Funerary Ritual in Mesopotamia and Elam,” in
Bronze 'Bathtub' Coffins: in the Context of 8th-6th Century BC Babylonian, Assyrian and Elamite Funerary
Practices (Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, 2015), pp. 85-97, 2.
4
Pyramid Texts of Unas
5
Pyramid Texts of Unas
6
Pyramid Texts of Unas
According to Stevenson’s account of the entrance to the afterlife: “If the heart was found to

be heavier than the feather of truth (Ma’at), then it would be tossed into the gaping jaws of a

demon, rendering the deceased incapable of entering the afterlife.”7 Ultimately, admittance to

the afterlife was determined by what one had done during life, and only those with a pure

heart could enter.

The ancient Greek underworld was particularly gloomy, similar to its Mesopotamian

counterpart. Ironically, it did have a paradise within it known as Elysium, which mimicked

the Egyptian idea of the afterlife. For the worst sinners, such as those who insulted the gods,

there was a deep pit known as Tartarus. Homer expresses the despair of the afterlife in the

Odyssey, where Odysseus struggles in his attempt to embrace his mother: “Three times she

flew away, out of my arms, like a shadow or a dream.”8 The afterlife provided no emotional

fulfilment for its inhabitants. According to Knight, past moral behavior had no impact on

one’s happiness: “The lack of any moral qualification for happiness in the afterlife is frequent

among less civilized peoples.”9 However, there were several mystery cults that believed in

the possibility of rebirth for initiates, a far more hopeful prospect than the Homeric

underworld. Most prominent among these were the Orphists, who followed a religion

centered around Orpheus, and the Eleusinian Mysteries, which centered around Demeter and

Persephone. Some sects, such as the Pythagoreans, believed in reincarnation.

The Roman idea of the afterlife can be split into three schools of thought. The first

one was the orthodox state religion, which was very similar to the Greek underworld. The

second one was the mystery cults, who expressed the hope of rebirth for initiates. The third

7
Alice Stevenson and Alice Stevenson, “Journeys to the Afterlife,” in The Petrie Museum of Egyptian
Archaeology Characters and Collections (London: UCL Press, 2015), pp. 78-79, 3.
8
López-Ruiz Carolina, “Odysseus' Nekyia in Homer, Odyssey, Book 11,” in Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: a
Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation (New York: Oxford University Press,
2017), pp. 458-478.
9
W. F. Jackson Knight, “The After-Life in Greek and Roman Antiquity,” Folklore 69, no. 4 (1958): pp. 217-236,
https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587x.1958.9717150, 4.
one was the philosophers, who saw that the soul perishes with the body. Stoicism, a school of

philosophy that became popular in the Roman era, believed that you have to seize the day, or

in Latin, carpe diem: “Live for each day, live for the hours. Since nothing is for always

yours.”10 The Romans wanted to be remembered after their deaths, much like the Egyptians

and Mesopotamians. They also believed that people who were properly buried maintained

their sentience in the afterlife, as the deceased resided underground. The souls of people who

were not properly buried were thought to haunt the living. According to Johnston: “Belief in

an afterlife of some sort is implicit in the Roman cult of the dead, which presumed that the

souls of the deceased wanted offerings, and in the concept of the di manes.”11 The di manes

were the souls of deceased ancestors, now deified. In Roman society, it was a legal duty of

the head of the household to take care of his deceased ancestors.

Despite the variation in each society’s attitudes towards the afterlife, it was not bound

by socioeconomic barriers, and thus was theoretically attainable by all. However, the quality

of the afterlife would vary depending on one’s rank in society. A wealthy individual could

provide extravagant offerings to the gods and thus be accorded a higher status in the afterlife.

Conversely, a less wealthy individual would be judged unfavorably and be accorded a lower

status in the afterlife. In all of these societies, death was seen as a great leveler, as only in the

afterlife could one enjoy true equality.

“I pledge that I have acted honorably.”

10
Epitaph of Pompeia
11
Sarah Iles Johnston and Sarah Iles Johnston, “Death, the Afterlife, and Other Last Things,” in Religions of the
Ancient World: a Guide (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004), pp. 489-492, 4.
Bibliography

Anonymous. “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld.” Translated by Joachim Krecher,

2000. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1814.htm.
Wicks, Yasmina, and Yasmina Wicks. “Death, the Afterlife, and Funerary Ritual in
Mesopotamia and Elam.” Essay. In Bronze 'Bathtub' Coffins: in the Context of 8th-6th
Century BC Babylonian, Assyrian and Elamite Funerary Practices, 85–97. Oxford:
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, 2015.

Stevenson, Alice, and Alice Stevenson. “Journeys to the Afterlife.” Essay. In The Petrie
Museum of Egyptian Archaeology Characters and Collections, 78–79. London: UCL
Press, 2015.

Johnston, Sarah Iles, and Sarah Iles Johnston. “Death, the Afterlife, and Other Last Things.”
Essay. In Religions of the Ancient World: a Guide, 489–92. Cambridge, MA: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004.

López-Ruiz Carolina, and B.B. Powell. “Odysseus' Nekyia in Homer, Odyssey, Book 11.”
Essay. In Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: a Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near
Eastern Myths in Translation, 458–78. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Knight, W. F. Jackson. “The After-Life in Greek and Roman Antiquity.” Folklore 69, no. 4
(1958): 217–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587x.1958.9717150.

Cooper, J. "The Fate of Mankind: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Mesopotamia." Death
and the Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions, ed. Hiroshi Obayashi. New York:
Greenwood Press, 1992, pp. 19-33.

Pyramid Texts of Unas.