Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Exam Question 3


            The Egyptian and Greek views of the Afterlife are similar and different. They were both obsessed with the afterlife and assumed things because of their religion. There were gods in their afterlife that would tell them what they had to do. It was a complex world for Egyptians and Greeks.
The Egyptians believed in Ka and that the god Horus would weigh their hearts on a scale with a feather to find out if their hearts are lighter than a feather or not. If the heart was lighter or equal, they would let the person go to a pleasant afterlife. If the heart was heavier, they would stay in limbo for eternity. Egyptians had pyramids for burial. On the other hand, Greeks did not think that the afterlife was pleasant. Hades, the brother of Zeus, and his wife reigned countless drifting crowds of the shades of those who had died. "The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the psyche, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals," (Department of Greek and Roman Art 2003). Relatives of those that died held rituals for them.

Sources:

Department of Greek and Roman Art. "Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece". InHeilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dbag/hd_dbag.htm (October 2003)

Budge, E. A. (1985). The Book of the Dead. Retrieved June 8, 2011, from http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/

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