They had to bury him or else face the consequences. The dead body that laid before the mourning party would soon come alive and wreak havoc on the city if they did not entomb him correctly. Such were the beliefs of the ancient Greeks. These people believed that there was a large list of rules in treating the deceased. If they did not follow such rules, the dead man or woman would revive and unleash hell. This list was made ultimately out of the beliefs of the departed and their afterlife with their ghostly brethren. Although it has been scientifically proven a body cannot come back from death, the Greeks’ supernatural notions caused Homeric society to postulate deceased peoples could return and engender chaos if not disposed of correctly.
In order to begin to understand why certain people were buried in one way rather than another, you must first understand …show more content…
One example is whether a person is moved on or not. As mentioned previously, the mourners’ jobs were to help the deceased move on to the afterlife. The about moving on was that if in a dream an image of the dead came once, then the person was taken care of correctly. However, if the image came two or more times, then the person was improperly buried and is left to roam the living world (Multon 186). This belief caused many bodies to be exhumed and their rituals were redone so that the person may be able to move on. Another belief about the dead was that if not disposed of correctly, the dead person could come back to life again as a zombie. Unlike current day pop culture zombies, these were actually feared, so much so that the ancient Greeks would take protective measures to ensure an unnatural death would not become undead like it was so prophesied (Rosenberg). Even though these were only two examples of the now-absurd beliefs, there are plenty more than can be
In order to begin to understand why certain people were buried in one way rather than another, you must first understand …show more content…
One example is whether a person is moved on or not. As mentioned previously, the mourners’ jobs were to help the deceased move on to the afterlife. The about moving on was that if in a dream an image of the dead came once, then the person was taken care of correctly. However, if the image came two or more times, then the person was improperly buried and is left to roam the living world (Multon 186). This belief caused many bodies to be exhumed and their rituals were redone so that the person may be able to move on. Another belief about the dead was that if not disposed of correctly, the dead person could come back to life again as a zombie. Unlike current day pop culture zombies, these were actually feared, so much so that the ancient Greeks would take protective measures to ensure an unnatural death would not become undead like it was so prophesied (Rosenberg). Even though these were only two examples of the now-absurd beliefs, there are plenty more than can be