Author: Amit ShiloPublisher:
ISBN: 9781108963862
Category : Future life in literature
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
"Afterlives in the Oresteia Similarly, David said to the Holy One, blessed be He, "make me to know my end," that is, he wished to know to which end he was allotted, and his mind was not at rest 'til the good tidings reached him, "Sit at my right hand" (Ps. 110:1). (Zohar Bereshith, 1.63a)1 Dear to the dear ones who nobly died over there, being prominent as an august lord under the earth and an attendant of the greatest chthonic rulers there. For when you lived you were king of those wielding in their hands destined fate and the mortal-persuading scepter. (Choephoroi 354-62) Preoccupation with one's lot after death has been suggested as the starting point of all philosophical thinking and is one of the central concerns of world religions. It is evident in the first quotation from the Zohar, as it is in innumerable other religious texts.2 In Ancient Greece, mystery cults promised a better afterlife - but antiquity's profound silence has segregated them from the mainstream of Greek religion. Unlike the scriptures and commentaries of numerous other religions, the only openly circulating Ancient Greek texts outspoken about the afterlife are philosophical and literary"--
