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American Academy of Religion

Death: Myth and RitualAuthor(s): Adele M. FiskeSource: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Sep., 1969), pp. 249-265Published by: Oxford University Press

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Death: Myth and RitualADELE M. FISKE

In myths of the ancient Near East deathis conceived not as annihilation but as acontinued existence. This existence isminimal, static, a fixed mirror-image oflife, existence underground, dark andsilent, lost and "wandering," hungry and

thirsty. Sometimes there is a seconddeath, or a possible paradise.1 Distinctionmust be made between survival in theworld of the living by memory or byposterity, and survival on a plane ofexistence beyond mortal life and whatGaster calls "punctuality." This distinc-tion implies a further one between "life,"- presence on earth with bodily func-tions - and mere "existence,"2 like rockor stone.s

Beliefs about the unknown fate of thedead illustrate the function of myth,translating the real and punctual -intoterms of the ideal and durative, projectingritual procedure to the plane of the ideal

situation.4 Rituals of kenosis rather than

those of plerosis relate to death, especiallythe mortification and purgation elementsin the seasonal pattern.5 The concept thatto a primitive community life is not aconsistent progress from birth to death,but "a series of leases annually or

periodically renewed" is illuminating.6Rites of kenosis (emptying) "portray and

symbolize the eclipse of life and vitalityat the end of each lease," which is usuallyrelated to the seasonal variation in the

Syro-Palestinian year, a dry and wetseason.' Moreover, what declines and isrevivified is the total corporate unit, thetopocosm,s but it does not exclude, how-ever, the positive aspect, the plerosisrites. As Eliade points out, all ritualshave a common element, an initiatoryessence, death followed by "resurrec-tion."' Initiation is death and rebirth,to end and to be perfected, a paradoxexpressed in an ancient confusion between

the words teleisthai and teleutan.Y' The

1 Cf. E. Bendann, Death Customs, n Analytic Study of Burial Rites, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1930, pp. 57-61, 282.

SThis outlook seems to rest on a clear distinction between existence nd life. I am in-debted to Professor T. H. Gaster for this observation.

. Cf. death imagery n Greek poetry. See Robert F. Goheen, The Imagery f Sophocles'"Antigone," a Study of Poetic Language and Structure, Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress,

1951, pp. 37-41,109;

Antigone (823-33)likens herself to Niobe

(IliadXXIV.

602-617). Also see Richmond Lattimore, Themes n Greek and Latin Epitaphs, Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 1962, p. 175.

4 Theodore H. Gaster, Thespis, Ritual, Myth and Drama in the Ancient Near East,2nd rev. ed., New York: Doubleday & Company, 1961, p. 24.

6Ibid., pp. 23, 26. 6Ibid., p. 23.SIbid., p. 132, n. 28. 8 Ibid., p. 24.' Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, Archaic Techniques f Ecstacy, rans. by W. R. Trask,

Bollingen Series LXXVI, New York: Pantheon Books, 1964, p. 64.10Gaster, Thespis, p. cit., p. 57.249


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250 ADELE M. FISKE

traditional cheme of the initiation cere-mony- whether into a tribe, a secretsociety, or as a shaman- is suffering,death, and resurrection, n an ecstaticexperience of dismemberment, scent tothe sky, descent o the underworld." heconcept of life after death would seemto be a projection o another xistence ofthese initiatory xperiences.

When there s a death, he whole groupconcerned s in a "religious tate," made"sacred" by contagion with the dead.

Hence abstentions re required: t is for-bidden o speak his name, to go to theplace he died, to speak o strangers. Menmust keep silence, save for groans, cuttheir hair and their beard, smear clay onface or body, beat, burn and laceratethemselves. All these actions are at-tributed o the dead n myths of the nextlife.12 he funeral itual tself, a technique,

as James says, "to deal with the mys-terious and disturbing phenomenon ofdeath,""3 ften includes the following:the eyes and mouth of the dead areclosed --i. e., he is in darkness andsilent his body s washed and anointed,but he is not "purified." Pure water iskept outside the door for purification fthose defiled by the dead. The water is

not for the dead themselves. The proces-sion that carried he body to the gravein Greece was often silent, a customenforced by law.14Laws also forbade anyviolent expression f grief, tearing heeks,beating breasts and head, even "singingpoems."'5 But these are vestiges of the

rites of initiatory "death" still found in

primitive peoples. Eliade enumerates somein a list similar to Durkheim's: (1) seclu-

sion in the bush or forest in a larvalexistence that assimilates the candidatesto the dead whose limitations they mustobserve, not using their fingers, for

example; (2) to be daubed with ashes,"covered with dirt" and dust or hiddenunder masks; (3) a symbolic burial;(4) a symbolic descent to the underworld;(5) a hypnotic sleep from narcotics;

(6) ordeals of torture and amputations.1"The severity of primitive mourning withits cruel abstinences and self-torture leadsDurkheim to ask why the dead man,presumably a loved member of familyor tribe, imposes such torments. He

interprets it as a collective reaction

against a common danger and psycho-logical shock." If, as Gaster suggests,

the rites concern the whole topocosm,the ritual, even though not in this caseseasonal, may still express the state of

suspended animation of the whole societyand environment. Moreover the participa-tion of the living in the world of the deadmakes the latter knowable; death itselfis now interpreted as a rite of passage toa new mode of existence, both for the

group and for the individual who hasdied.1s As the initiation ceremony is oftenone of rebirth, or rather as rebirth is itsfinal stage, this concept also is transferredto the dead who, like the "one about todie," is a neophyte, "newly planted,"reborn to new life.19 Rites of mourning

1xEliade, op. cit., pp.33-34.

12 Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, New York: Collier,1961, pp. 435 ff.

13 E. O. James, Myth and Ritual in the Ancient Near East, New York: Praeger, 1958, p. 31.14 Erwin Rbhde, Psyche, The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks,

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, reprint, 1950, p. 163.15Ibid., p. 164, cf. Plutarch, Solon, 21.16 Eliade, op. cit., p. 64.17 Durkheim, op. cit., pp. 444-446.18 Eliade, op. cit., p. 510.19 Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 43.


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DEATH: MYTH AND RITUAL 251

seem to determine certain characteristicsattributed to the soul and perhaps are notunrelated to the idea that it survives the

body. To explain the rites, to account formourning, the dead came to be thoughtof as having a prolonged existence beyondthe tomb; this also may have inspired thedesire to survive in memory.20

This paper will first briefly consider the

general character of existence after deathas expressed in myths of the ancient NearEast; then it will consider certain specificaspects of this existence in relation toritual.

Any positive existence after death is ina vicarious life, the memory of family orstate; for the conscious individual whodies, there is nothing. An apparent excep-tion is the search for personal salvationin the after-life that led to attachment toan "eternal life-giving entity." Ancient

Egypt is the earliest example, with itstechnique based on the principle of ritualassimilation.21 Immortality is secured by"assimilation" to the immortal ones, the

gods. The dead are juxtaposed with the

creator-god, Atum, in the Book of theDead, thus achieving some form of arenewed creation of life.22 The dead man

says: "I am he among the gods who

cannot be repulsed." He is Atum in hissun disc, he is Re, rising on the easternhorizon. "I am yesterday, while I know

tomorrow." "Yesterday" is Osiris, theyesterday of death is the god of the dead;"tomorrow" is rebirth with the ever-

rising son, the accession of Horus to therule of Osiris his father."23

No assimilation to the gods is found,however, in the cults of Tammuz, Adonis,or Attis, although they seem superficiallyto be like that of Osiris.24 Survival, save

in Egypt and sometimes also there, isonly in terms of memory achieved, either

by leaving a "name," a monument, orchildren. In the Akkadian version of

Gilgamesh, the hero, facing death, says:"Should I fall, I shall have made me aname.... A (name) that endures I willmake for me "25 A more sophisticatedmemorial is recommended to the Egyp-

tian: "Make monuments... for the god.That is what makes to live the name ofhim who does it.... Make thy monu-ments to endure according as thou areable. A single day gives for eternity, andan hour effects accomplishment for thefuture."26 The praises offered to thehonored dead and the gods of the nec-

ropolis "become a remembrance for the

20 Durkheim, op. cit., p. 448.21 S. G. F. Brandon, d., The Saviour God, Comparative tudies n the Concept f Salvation,

Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1963, p. 18.22 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating o the Old Testament, d. James B. Pritchard,

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), p. 3, 1500-1000 B. C. version. (Abbreviatedin further notes as ANET.)

23 Ibid., p. 4; also n. 8, 9, 10. Therefore like Atum the dead man's life will endure"millions of millions

(of years).When all else is

destroyedand returns to

chaos,Osiris

in the land of the dead, and those identified with him, escape destruction." The Pyramidtexts, applied irst to the pharaoh nly, then to queens and by the Eleventh-Twelfth Dynasties(21st century B. C. and after) to "worthy nonroyal persons," also identify the dead manwith Osiris and Horus: "O Atum, the one here is that son of thine," Osiris, whom thouhast caused to survive and live on. He lives - (so also) this King Unis lives. He doesnot die - (so also) this King Unis does not die, He does not perish (so also) this KingUnis does not perish." Ibid., p. 9, 32.

24 S. G. F. Brandon, "The Ritual Techniques of Salvation n the Ancient Near East,"in The Saviour God, op. cit., pp. 28-29.

25 ANET, p. 79. 26 Ibid., p. 416.


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252 ADELE M. FISKE

future, for all who come to pass by."'27"Enrich thy house of the West; embellishthy place of the necropolis." This same

text adds later: "a good character s aremembrance."28 an ethical variationon the old theme. The dead man, speakingas Osiris, says: "My heir s healthy, mytomb endures; they are my adherents(still) on earth."2' n the Middle Kingdomdialogue between a man and his soul, theman promises hat, if his soul will allowhim to commit suicide, he will give a

shelter over its corpse, with friends, ela-tives and an heir to make the offeringsand stand by the grave. The soul, inanswer, warns against abnormal death,telling a parable of a fisherman whosechildren re ost on the lake and devouredby crocodiles. The fisherman's daughteris unmarried; e does not weep for her,although "there s no coming forth from

the West for her," but for her unbornchildren "broken n the egg, who saw theface of the crocodile-god efore they had(even) lived "30 There is a worse fatethan lack of proper burial, . e., a totalnon-existence based on the distinctionbetween perpetuation f identity and thephysical continuation f life. There is nolife at all for the children, but the "soul"

can be remembered.The more survivors o mourn one thebetter, according o the shade of Enkiduin the story of Inanna and Gilgamesh.The fate of the man with one or two sons

is missing from the tablet, but the manwith three sons "drinks much water,"the heart of the man with four rejoices;the man with five, "Like a good scribe,his arm has been open, he brings justiceto the palace"; the man with six rejoicesin heart "like him who guides the plow";the man with seven is "as one close tothe gods." There is obviously a hierarchyhere of increasing blessedness in quantita-tive survival. The man whose body liesunburied finds no rest in the nether world,

but what is it precisely that finds no rest?Achilles cries: "then something of us doessurvive even in the Halls of Hades" afterthe vision of his dead friend (Iliad23.103-104). Is it only his own memoryand sense of obligation to perform thefuneral rites? The origin of the conceptof the "soul" first as life-force, then asdual, life-soul and image-soul, or in even

more complex forms, will not be dis-cussed here.31There is no return from death. The

Mesopotamian gods who are said to bringthe dead back from the underworld infact merely preserve the life of those onthe point of death.32 "Salvation" meansthe cure of sickness in this life.33 The

eschatology of early Greece as well as of

Babylonia was foreign to any ideas ofresurrection of the individual; "the in-dividual was only a link in the chain ofthe generations."34 The return of thedead at seasonal festivals was in terms of

27 Ibid., p. 33, cf. n. 1. 28 Ibid., pp. 417-418.29 Ibid., p. 9. 3o Ibid., p. 406.31For the misery of the unburied, see Samuel Noah Kramer, Sumerian Mythology,

a Study of Spiritual andLiterary

Achievement n the Third Millenium B.C.,

New York-Evanston: Harper & Row, 1961, pp. 36-37. The theme is familiar in Greek literature(Patroclus, Antigone's brother, etc.); see Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City, Part I.For the concept of soul, see Erwin Panofsky, Tomb Sculpture, New York: Abrams, n.d.,pp. 10-13. Not only inadequate urial but also suicide or virginity keeps souls dangerouslyattached o their bodies (p. 12). See below, p. 19, "duration" nd "second death."

32 Theodore H. Gaster, "Resurrection," The Interpreter's ictionary f the Bible, NewYork-Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962, IV, 40.

33Brandon, p. 29; ANET, p. 369.84 Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Folk Religion, New York-Evanston: Harper & Row,

1961, p. 60.


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the community. When "life" emergesfrom the underworld, it is in a cosmicsense, as the rising of the sun or the Nile

brought forth from the underworld for themaintenance of the people; the sacredriver enters into the Underworld andcomes forth above, "loving to come forthas a mystery."36 "I am while I am," onetext says ambiguously.37 The Egyptiansecular songs repeat the ancient lament:

What are their places now?

As though they had never beenThere is no one who comes back from

(over) there,That he may tell their needs,That he may still our hearts,

Until we (too) may travel to the placeswhere they have gone.38

The gods are, in fact, deaf to man'scry: "The Weary (of Heart) [i. e.,Osiris] hears not their mourning, and

wailing saves not the heart of a man fromthe underworld." Therefore make holidaynow, you will never come back.39 TheGoddess Inanna is asked why she hascome to "the land of no return," followingthe road "whose traveller returns not."40

The Akkadian version amplifies thebriefer Sumerian statement:

To the Land of no Return, the realmsof [Ereshigal],

15 Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 44.

18 ANET, pp. 370-371; cf. p. 370, n. 12. The goddess Inanna believes Father Enkiwill "surely bring me to life," when she goes down to the land of death (ANET, p. 54).When she does ascend from the nether world, her corpse having been restored to life,"verily the dead hasten ahead of her." But these are not ancestral spirits, they are ghosts,evil spirits (Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 59), "small demons like the spear shafts and largedemons.., .walked at her side." (ANET, p. 56). They, like Ereshigal and Nergal, rulersof the underworld, are bearers of death, deities of pestilence and ascend only to carry offthe gods to destruction (ANET, p. 57; Walter Adison Jayne, The Healing Gods of AncientCivilizations, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925, p. 104).

38 ANET, p. 416: "The Instruction or the King Meri-ka-re." n Egypt the gods are

immortal; Re, "unique n nature," passes eternity above (ANET, p. 367). But in manyliterary texts is expressed the hope of securing an "eternal happiness" or the individualwho has died, the ordinary ndividual, not the king alone as in earlier imes (ANET, p. 34).After the death of the body, the dead man would come into unrestricted possession of hisessential self, in a state of beatitude (Gaster, "Resurrection," Interpreter's ictionary,IV, 39-43).

Like other ancient peoples, the Hebrews believed that the dead continued to existbut in a minimal form of existence without memory or experience of God's presence(Gaster, "Dead, the Abode of the," Interpreter's ictionary f the Bible, I, 787-788). They"were defunct, not deceased" (Ibid.). The Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite, and Babylonian

texts have a more clearly defined attitude toward life after death: There is none. Theunderworld "existence" s not worthy to be called "life." "Who, my friend, is superiorto death? Only the Gods (live) forever under the sun. As for mankind, numbered re theirdays; whatever hey achieve s but the wind " (ANET, p. 79: Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh).The Sumerian version of Gilgamesh also gives no hope of desirable mmortality. Enlil,father of the gods, has not destined the hero for eternal life but for kingship and heroism(ANET, p. 50).

38 ANET, p. 467.

39Ibid., p. 467. "Weary" (wrd'ib) is a common term for the dead; cf. Greekol KaiAbvTEs in Homer.

4o bid., p. 54.


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254 ADELE M. FISKE

To the dark house, the abode ofIrkal [la],

To the house which none leave who

have entered it,To the road from which there is no

way back.41

Enkidu uses the same words of the houseand the road of death.42 The gods kept lifefor themselves; "death for mankind theyset aside."'4 In the Ugaritic tale of

Aqhat, the goddess Anath tempts the

youthwith immortality if he will give

her his bow:

Ask for life, O Aqhat the youth.Ask for life and I'll give it to thee.Ask for deathlessness, and I'll bestow

it on thee.I'll make thee count years with BaalWith the sons of El shalt thou count

months.44

Aqhat answers scornfully: "Further life- how can mortal attain it?"' Life, saysa Hittite prayer, is bound up in death anddeath in life. "Man cannot live forever;the days of his life are numbered."

Regretfully it adds that grievous sicknesswould not be so hard to bear "were manto live forever." Sickness is the foretasteof death."4 Man's destiny is to bear the

burden of creation,47 o be brought to anend by death and trouble.48 The fate ofmankind is to become like Enkidu, to lie

down and rise no more, to turn to clay,to be devoured by worms.49 Utnapishtim"who joined the assembly of the gods insearch of life," could give no help to

Gilgamesh when he came to ask "aboutlife and death."50 There is not one whofails to reach the plane of death."1

What then is the relation of the livingto the dead as expressed in ritual? This

consideration will be limited to someaspects of fasting, solitude, transformation(or inversion) and apotropaism.

FASTING

Death itself is insatiable hunger; thedead hunger and thirst. Sheol is an "in-satiable demon with wide-open throat,

gaping jaws."52 It is interesting that thesame terms describe death and the seven

fertility gods. The gods are "a lip toearth, a lip to heaven, so that there entertheir mouth the fowl of heaven and fishof the sea."53 Of death it is said: "Its one

lip (is stretched) upward to the sky,/Its other (downward) to the netherworld./ Baal will descend into its maw

41 Ibid., p. 107.42 Ibid., p. 87. In the myth of "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Nether World," when

Enkidu, as Gilgamesh's servant, goes down to the underworld o bring back his master'spukku and mikku (drum and drumstick), he is seized not by demons or by Nergal but bythe nether world itself. This myth or one like it is depicted on seals reproduced by Kramer.In one the goddess Inanna tands on a mountain near a tree, the huluppu ree perhaps; hesun-god rises out of the lower regions; Gilgamesh holds a bow. In another here are twomountains the Sumerian word for mountain means nether world), one containing burning

god, the other god holding a bull-man by the tail. In a third, a deity emerges from theunderworld and a god or Gilgamesh s chopping down a bent tree whose arch makes amountain-shaped orm enclosing a goddess and the emerging god (Kramer, pp. 34-35).

43ANET, p. 90, Akkadian. 44 bid., p. 151.45 Ibid. 46Ibid., p. 400.4 Ibid., pp. 99-100. 48Ibid., p. 385, Lament o Ishtar.49Ibid., pp. 91, 88. o0bid., pp. 95-96.51 Egyptian, Singer with Harp, ANET, p. 34.52 Prov. 1:12; Isa. 5:14; Hab. 2:5. Cf. Gaster, "The Dead," Interpreter's ictionary.53Cyrus H. Gordon, "Canaanite Mythology" in Mythologies f the Ancient World,

ed. Kramer, New York: Doubleday, 1961, p. 189.


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go down into its mouth, (like food)."''4The soul is hungry; 65 its shadowy exist-ence depends on the offerings made it of

food and drink.568 he demons that fol-lowed Inanna were beings that do notknow food or water, that do not eat

sprinkled flour or drink libated water.57But the human dead must eat dust and

clay.58 The soul that has no one to offerit libations, "no one to tend it," musteat "lees of pots, crumbs of bread, offalof the street."59 The famine that came

when Telipinu hid himself not only madehills, trees, pastures barren and springsdry, but created famine for men and gods,a famine like death itself so that even a

great banquet could not satisfy their

hunger and thirst.e0 Thirst accompanieshunger.8' "I was parched and my throatwas dusty. I said: 'This is the taste ofdeath.' " Death is described as a "field

of thirst" by Babylonians; Egyptian deadpray for water; the Orphic tablets directthe soul to cool springs.62

Related to hunger and thirst is the

image of dust, dirt. "Dust is their fareand clay their food."83 Death himself,Mot, devoured mud in the underworld.64This diet or lack of life-giving food

explains their constant thirst and lan-

guor.65 The dwellings of death are desertland.88 Ar4 Mawdt is the Arabic term fordiscarded waterless land; as in Latin,sterile soil is said to have died.6' Thedead themselves are earth: "My friend

whom I loved has turned to clay," said

Gilgamesh.88 The vision of death is sodreadful that Enkidu does not wish to

describe it; his "body is devoured byvermin and filled with dust."89 All hasturned to ashes,70 as at Ishtar's descent,dust spread over "door and bolt," i. e.,over the dwellings of men who no longergo in or out.7' Death's filth is deep and

everlasting; 12 it reeks with the stench of

bird-droppings, decayed fish, stagnantpools, reedy marshland, crocodiles.73 Enki

sends the food and water of life to re-vive Inanna's corpse by Kurgarru andKalaturru, two sexless creatures that heforms from dirt. Enkidu is told not towear clean clothes in his descent, not toanoint himself with oil, not to wear

sandals.74 The gods whom Inanna visitswith her grim escort of demons all sit inthe dust, dressed in dirt, humbling them-

selves to avoid being carried away to theunderworld."7

These concepts reflect a ritual pre-enactment of death, to avert the reality.The concept of descent to the underworld,either to bring back the soul of a sickman or to escort the soul of the dead tothe realm of death is found in shamanist

ritual.7' Fasting, connected with marriage

and initiation as well as with mourning,expresses an "occlusion of personality,"an evacuation of the former self; it is the

hunger and thirst attributed mythically tothe dead." It further represented for the

64Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 206. 66ANET, p. 405.56 Isaac Mendelssohn, Religions of the Ancient Near East, New York: Bobbs-Merrill

Liberal Arts, 1955, p. xviii.

6' ANET, p.405. 58

Ibid., p.87.

11 Ibid., p. 99. 60 Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 303.61 Isa. 5:13. 62 Gaster, Thespis, p. cit., pp. 204, 185.63 ANET, p. 106. 64 Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., pp. 213-214.65Ibid., pp. 203-204. 66 Ibid., p. 131, n. 17.67 Ibid., p. 132. Cf. below, note 155.

6s ANET, p. 91. 69 Ibid., pp. 98-99.70Ibid., p. 82. 71 ANET, p. 107.72 Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 204. 73ANET, p. 406.r4 Kramer, p. 35. 16 Ibid., pp. 95-96.76Eliade, op. cit., p. 203. " Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., pp. 29-30.


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256 ADELE M. FISKE

topocosm the intercalary periods that are,as the dead are conceived to be, outsidetime, vacant days of suspended anima-

tion.7s Such were the Thesmophoria oflate October, the nine-day fast held in

Cyprus, the fast of Demeter Chloe atAthens, the April fast for Ceres in Rome,etc.'9 The Hebrew term for fasting bearsout this sense of constraint, restraint of

personality. The Jewish fast from theseventeenth of Tammuz, to the ninth ofAb in midsummer is borrowed from the

Babylonian cult of Tammuz, accordingto Gaster. Teshrit was the "lenten

period" of the Babylonian New Year.soThe dead were thought to be weary,languid, weak, for this is what the fastinginitiate experiences. Before becoming ashaman, a candidate must be ill for a

long time, tortured by the shaman an-cestral souls, until he becomes and re-

mains inanimate, his face and hands blue,his heart scarcely beating.8' Sometimesthe fast from food is so severe that hefalls unconscious and awakens to find his

body sore all over.82 These long faintingspells and lethargic sleeps obviously are

symbolic death.83 The earliest burials of

prehistoric man show bodies in the posi-tion of rest, like the Neanderthal youth

whose head rests on a pillow of flintflakes.84 Osiris, with whom the Egyptiandead was identified, is told: "Wake up,Osiris, stand up thou Weary One "--

a ritual phrase.85 This unconscious stateis prolonged for a ritual period of seven

days and nights, or three days and nights.86There is another myth-approach to

death in which the hungry dead (inBuddhist belief there is a special hell for

"hungry ghosts," preta) are fed and there-fore "live." Life in the next world is thusidealized chiefly by the Egyptians, in

symbolic terms taken from ordinaryexistence, especially food and drink. Thedead sail on the canals, plow, thresh and

reap in rich fields surrounded by water-ways.'7 There is the pool of the kha-birds,there are the fields of giant barley, thereare the south winds.88 There are trees,two sycamores of turquoise (green),groves of jewel-fruited trees, bearingcornelian and lapis.89 Water and grainare sources of life, symbols of life; windis the breath of life, perhaps, as the

Indian cosmic pr.a and apina; birds arethe bird-souls of the dead.90 Trees arethe symbols of paradise where the treeof life grows with its fruits, here de-scribed as jeweled, elsewhere golden, asin the garden of the Hesperides. The treeis also the support of the cosmos, the poston which Shu, the air god, lifted theheaven separating it from earth, as in

the Vedic myth where Brahma is thewood and the tree, and heaven is sup-ported on posts, skambha.91

However, the plant that rewards

18 Ibid., pp. 26, 28-29. 79 bid., p. 27.80 Ibid., pp. 30, 27-28. 81 Eliade, op. cit., pp. 43-44.82 Ibid., p. 84. 88 Ibid., p. 53.84 James, op. cit., p. 32.86 Brandon,

op. cit., p.22,

Pyr.2092a-2093b. See above, note 39.

86 Eliade, op. cit., p. 44. 87 James, op. cit., p. 218.88 ANET, p. 33.89 Ibid., pp. 33, 89, Gilgamesh. A common eature n Paradise, also in Buddhist heavens.90 See Gaster-Frazer, New Golden Bough, p. 151 and additional notes; G. Weichert,

Seelenrugel 1902); H. Grapow, Die bildlichen Ausdriicke es Aegyptischen 1924), 93 f.So also in Christian hagiography, e. g. Gregory of Tours, Dial. IV, 10; St. Benedict'ssister Scholastica; Polycarp, etc. Medieval Celtic Romances often portray souls as singingbirds on the trees of Paradise. Thornton Wilder refers to this in a passage of The Bridgeof San Luis Rey.

91A. A. MacDonell, Vedic Mythology, Strassburg: Tribner, 1897, p. 11.


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Gilgamesh's search for life, "a plantapart, whereby a man may regain hislife's breath," only restores vigor and

youth to the living, not life to the dead.92Plants as life here and now are suggestedby the story of Enki, who, having filledditches with water from his phallus, andpresenting ifts of cucumbers, pples andgrapes, pours semen into the womb ofUtta, the fair lady, who brings fortheight sacred plants, he "tree" plant, the"honey" plant, the roadweed plant, the

thorn, he caper, he cassia and wo plantswhose names are lost. Because Enkidevours hem, he is cursed; the "eye oflife" will not look upon him; the eightdeities that are eventually born for hishealing may be related to these eightplants.93

Nilsson remarks hat the conviction fa happier ot in the underworld eld by

the Eleusinian nitiates sprang from anancient and worldwide dea that the otherlife is a repetition of this life, a mirrorimage.94 Death becomes even more de-sirable han life. What is done on earthis "a kind of dream" hat passes in a

flash, but he who reaches the West iswelcomed as "safe and sound.""95 hedead man becomes "a living god," with

power to judge and punish sin; he standsin the bark of the sun; he is a man of

wisdom."9 In two Egyptian texts deathis desired. The "Eloquent Peasant" longsfor the coming of death as a thirsty mancraves water, as a nursing child desires

milk."97 he suicide sees death as release:It is recovery from illness, going out intothe open after confinement, sitting under

an awning on a breezy day, the end ofrain and clearing of the sky, returninghome after an absence; it is the fragranceof myrrh and of lotus blossoms.9" The

dialogue on human misery remarks withsome acerbity, "if you look, people are

uniformly dull." Mankind lacks true

understandings and to plan evil is un-avoidable for men.99 There is no one to

speak to; all are hostile. Life is so limited,"a circumscribed period: (even) the treesmust fall."100 Songs "in the ancienttombs" magnify life on earth and belittlethe necropolis, but this is wrong "Whyis it that such is done to the land of

92ANET, p. 96.

98 Kramer, op. cit., pp.58-59. One is

Ninkasi, goddessof

strong drink and thereforeperhaps a vegetation deity; another s Ningishzida, an underworld od (ANET, pp. 39-41;cf. p. 40, n. 54). Food and water are the source of life and energy. So in the next life, tobe "an effective spirit in the beautiful West" i. e. to be able to go up and down in thenecropolis, even to be in the retinue of Osiris, is the result of "being satisfied with thefood of Wen-nofer (Osiris)." The dead can then come forth from the tomb by day, assumeany form he wishes, play draughts, it in the arbor, come forth as a "living soul" (ANET,p. 3). In the story of Adapa, a mortal s offered the bread of life, the water of life that isthe food of the gods and that would make him too a god. Fooled by Ea, Adapa refuses thebread and water: "Thou shalt not have (eternal) life Ah, per(ver)se mankind " ries Anu

triumphantly.shtar s

sprinkledwith the water of life from the "lifewater

bag" keptin

the underworld, nd thus restored o life (ANET, p. 108; Kramer, p. 87). In the Sumerianversion Enki sends the food of life and the water of life to be sprinkled sixty times onInanna's orpse (Kramer, p. 87).

4 Nilsson, p. 59. Paradise has not only the sweet water, the cropbearing ields, asabove, but it is also, in Gilgamesh, a pure, clean bright land, "Dilmun," where there is nosickness, old age nor death; no ravens, ittidu-birds, ions, wolves or wild dogs (ANET,pp. 37-38; cf. n. 8).

96ANET, p. 34. 96 Ibid., p. 407.91 bid., p. 410. 98 Ibid., p. 407.99Ibid., pp. 439-440. 100 Ibid., pp. 405-406.


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258 ADELE M. FISKE

eternity, the right and true, withouterrors? Quarrelling is its abominationand there is no one who arrays himself

against his fellows." This happy dreamof the after-life, however, remains rootedin this life and its best moments.0"'

Ritual often involved banquets, com-munion feasts that united the whole

community, living and dead, mortals and

gods. They would nourish their commonlife on a common food. From this mayhave derived the idea of the food of

immortality. The dead partake of foodwhich gives the "gods" their immortality.The gods, it is to be noted, always have

special food for this purpose - nectarand ambrosia, he food of life in the Adapamyth, the trees in Eden. The return of thedead in Babylon was always connectedwith funerary offerings.102 So too thePersians on the feast of Tirajan, the

Mandaeans in the New Year month ofTishri, the Greeks on the Anthesteria,the Romans on the Parentalia and theLemuria. In Babylon the dead "ascended"to eat of the sacrifice.103 When, as onthe Anthesteria, the dead were thoughtto swarm up into the world of the living,the days were unclean and temples wereclosed.'04 For while the recent dead were

more feared and the long-dead were morerevered, the presence of both was al-ways considered to upset the balanceof society.'05 A distinction must be made

between food for the former and feasts atwhich the latter return. The ancestraldead merely symbolize the continuous

communion of the topocosm: "Ourfounders are with us in spirit."'06 Thusthe ritual united the actual present com-

munity with the "ideal and durative" one.

SOLITUDE AND WANDERING

The abode of the dead is hidden; thedead are described as "those secret of

place."'0' They themselves are veiled offace.'08 The location, when conceived ofas a common dwelling of the dead, issometimes below, sometimes in the north,sometimes in the east or west, but alwaysremote, "yonder." Inanna sets her mindto descend to the "great below," a spacebeneath the surface of the earth.109 The"universe" in Sumerian terms is an-ki,

"heaven-earth," he above and the below.Kur or ki-gal is the nether-world, the

empty space between the earth's crustand the primeval sea, to which the sky-goddess Ereshkigal had been carried offto be its queen. The "river of the under-world" is "man-devouring."110 he heroalso lay in his grave at the place where hewas venerated, sometimes acting as malev-

olent, more often as a helpful spirit."'The early Greeks accepted this simul-taneous abode of the dead in tombs (thebody) and in a common underworld (the

101 Ibid., p. 33. Panofsky distinguishes "prospective" rom "restrospective" deas ofthe next life. The former are earlier, magical and for the dead; the latter develop ater andare to comfort the survivors (p. 16). Cf. Gardiner, Attitude of the Ancient Egyptians oDeath and the

Dead, Cambridge, 1935, p.32.

102 Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., pp. 46, 64.103Ibid., p. 44.104 R6hde, p. 168. See also Jane Harrison, Prolegomena o the Study of Greek Religion,

New York: Meridian, 1960, pp. 32-51.105Eliade, p. 207.106 Comment of Dr. Gaster.107 ANET, p. 32; cf. n. 2. Cf. Gaster, "Dead, Abode of the," The Interpreter's ic-

tionary of the Bible, op. cit., I, 787-788.108 Ibid., p. 105. 109 Ibid., p. 53.110 Kramer, pp. 41, 76, 38, 46. 111Nilsson, pp. 8-9; 18-19.


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inauguration of the new. This is oftencelebrated by a reversal of the customaryorder of society, a suspension of ordinaryactivities, sometimes a temporary rule ofslaves over their masters.166 During thetime of Baal's eclipse in death there wasan interregnum of this nature. The tem-

porary king must be strong and powerful,however, and 'Ashtar was rejected be-cause he was too small to fit Baal'sthrone.16' May this concept be behindthe idea, mentioned above, that in the

land of the dead there is no more classdistinction, that "sceptre and crown musttumble down"? The only distinction inthe Gilgamesh dream of death was in thenumber of sons surviving to feed thedead, not in rank or achievement, stillless in virtue. Related to this may be theidea of forgetting. In the Odyssey he deadwere mindless and with no memory,

fluttering aimlessly, like birds or bats,until they drank the blood. The aim ofordeals and rituals in shamanism is tomake the candidate forget his or her pastlife. On his return to the community, heis looked upon as a revenant. Mor-

phologically this resembles the rites forsecret societies and other forms ofinitiation.168

Alltransitional stages carry taboos;so death has its taboos as a special rite of

passage. When the body of the dead iswashed, it is not to purify, but to re-animate. The water for purification, as

we saw above, was kept outside the roomto prevent evil spirits entering or gettingout, as spirits cannot cross water. But the

bathing of corpses may be to "invigorate"them with primal essence, the idea under-

lying baptism. This bath is the bath ofRe, the sun-god, daily reborn from the

life-giving water. The bath of Gilgameshin the cool well is therefore ironic, for it

caused him to lose the plant of life. Thetaboo connected with death links it withrites of purgation, expelling of evil anddemons.1s9 Graves and tombs are "holy"and may not be entered, as we see in thefinal scene of "Oedipus at Colonus." Itis often part of a ritual to expel ancestral

ghosts. On the last day of the Anthesteriaa rite exorcised the Keres; on the Lemuria

in Rome, the paterfamilias banished theancestors: Manes exite paterni.17Death conceived either in terms of

cyclic or linear time involves the problemof duration. What happens to the "soul"that survives?17' In the Egyptian textsthere is a "spell for not dying a second

time."'72 The same idea is implied in thewords: "Thou hast not departed dead,

thou hast departed living." Later inthis

same document "to die" is distinguished

of a judgment heory, as in the constellation Libra, called the "scales of the dead" (Gaster,"Resurrection," nterpreter's ictionary, V, 41). An Akkadian vision of the Netherworldshows monstrous beings, the death god with a serpent-dragon ead and human feet; the"Upholder of Evil" with a bird-head nd wings. Whether the fact that other monsters alsohad replaced parts, so to speak, indicates dismemberment nd substitution of superior

members has not, to my knowledge, been considered. "Remove Hastily," the boatmanof the underworld, has the head of a Zu-bird, the hands and feet of some other being;another has an ox's head and human hands and feet; the evil Utukku, a lion's head and heZu-bird's hands and feet; "All That is Evil" has two heads, one the head of a lion (ANET,pp. 109-110).

166 Gaster, Thespis, p. cit., p. 61. 167Ibid., pp. 216-219.168 Eliade, op. cit., pp. 64-65; 362, n. 72.169Gaster, Thespis, op. cit., p. 61.170obid., p. 45.171Cf. Gaster, "Resurrection," nterpreter's ictionary, p. cit., IV, 39. See above, n. 31.172

ANET, p.9.


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264 ADELE M. FISKE

from "to perish."173 charm to save adead man from a serpent nvolves a ritualthat makes the dead an akh, an "effective

being." The phrase n this text, "livingor dead oul" might have his same dea.174When wild and savage animals weredepicted n the walls of tombs they weredrawn incomplete ndlacking ome essen-tial part, lest they be dangerous o thedead men.175 n the "Vision of the NetherWorld," the dreamer who is in the worldof the dead, sees the king of death,

Nergal, approach o kill him.176 erhapshere the dreamer s not considered eadbut merely trapped alive in the under-world.177 n the Egyptian text the baand ka survive, the ka especially beingeither vital force, protecting nd sustain-ing the "soul," or the second self.178The "Dispute over a Suicide" ndicatesa distinction between a man and his

"soul," the man opts for death butpromises survival and well-being o hisC"soul.",,79

The idea of a second death or of deathin death would seem derived from thefunerary econd-burial ites, which oftenmark the change from the period ofmourning nd fear of the dead expressedin fasting, self-torture, ilence, etc., tothe transformation

f the dead into abeneficent ancestral spirit. A funeralbanquet with sacrifices nd a purificationof the house may be the custom,180 rcremation, r other ways of making hereturn of the dead impossible and yetappeasing he spirit. The aim is to banishthe soul.'8' The assimilation f the dead,originally the king, with unchangeablecosmic

beings,the

circumpolartars or

the sun-god, or identification ith a godsuch as Osiris may be another expression

of this "second eath" by interpreting tas its conquest, n entrance nto ife andescape from ultimate death. In other

words, where concept fhappy fterlife,Elysian ields, he isles of the west, etc.is found, t derives rom the desire odrive he dead away, o appease hem othat they will stay away, and later, tcame o mean giving hemhappiness ndpeace, hoping or the same or oneself.As the end of the suffering nd ritualdeath of the initiated brings him a new

life in his tribe or community, ith newpower and dignity, o too men came oconceive f the final stage of that rite ofpassage hat we call actual eath.

A second eath r a rebirth n the nextlife does not imply ither esurrection fthe body or reincarnation n the Hinduor Buddhist ense.The Vedic concept fsurvival s very like that of the early

Egyptian and Babylonian, . e., beingsupported n existence y sacrificial eed-ing by one's descendants. he complaintwith which he Bhagavad iti begins sjust that if the battle s fought nd allare killed, he "Fathers" ill receive nomore offerings.182 urvival s only orchiefly n one's on. Rebirth n one's ownson who thus becomes ne's father s

expressed n a transmission itual.183 ne'sown sacrifices lso built up a kind ofreserve n the next ife, food or energy,svadha, nd by this one would get somekind of other body. When one's storefailed or if one lacked any svadha, henone became, omewhatgrimly, "food orthe gods" and went back to the worldcycle as rain etc., dying repeatedly,

punarmrtya.n the

Brahmania eriod,he

sacrificer ecomesmore mportant hanthe gods and knowledge f the rites was

17" bid., p. 32. 174Ibid., p. 12.175 ayne, op. cit., p. 18. 176 ANET, p. 110.177 Cf. Gaster, "Resurrection," nterpreter's ictionary, p. cit., IV, 40.17s ANET, p. 431. 179 Ibid., p. 405.180 Eliade, op. cit., pp. 208, 210. 181 Rohde, op. cit., pp. 19, 21.182 Kaushi. Up. 2.15. 183 Bhagavad Gita 1.42.


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the chief source of continued existencein a body formed by sacrifices.18 f yougo to yonder world not having escapeddeath, you are still fettered and must dieagain and again.185 his is almost he laterUpanishadic octrine n which hose "whoknow" never return whereas hose whomerely sacrifice, give alms, practice aus-terity, do "return." The former go tothe Sun and through the Sun to theBrahma oka; hose who do not know goto the moon (soma) and become ood for

the gods, returning o the elements andbeing born again.'?8

CONCLUSION

As Inanna and Ishtar are told in theirdescent o death, the rites of the nether-

world are "extraordinarily perfected" andmust not be questioned, even by the

goddess.187 To have contact with the

dead signifies to be dead oneself,188 s theyfound to their cost. Ritual is the way to

cope with this, and from the ritual the

mythical representations of death's char-acteristics seem to derive. To sum up:because the basic seasonal and initiationrites are composed of phases of suffering,death and resurrection and rebirth, myth-ology, in transposing the rite from the

"actual and punctual" evel to the durativeand transcendent, applied to the dead,collectively and individually, the same

experiences: ordeals of fasting, isolation,silence, wandering, transformation, and

eventually an emergence into a newexistence of greater power and freedom.1s8

184Satapatha Brahmana, 11.2.6.13; 2.3.3.5 ff.; 10.3.1.9, ff. etc.185 SB 2.3.3.5 ff. 18s BU 6.2.187 Kramer, op. cit., pp. 91-92. 188 Eliade, op. cit., p. 84.189 Cf. Evans-Wentz ntroduction o The Tibetan Bookof the Dead, New York: Oxford

University Press, 1960: "To those who had passed through the secret experience of pre-mortem death, right dying is initiation, conferring.., .the power to control consciouslythe process of death and regeneration" p. xiv). Jung in his commentary on the text calls

it "a way of initiation in reverse"; to understand he original initiation experience t isnecessary to reverse the sequence of the Bardo Th6diol. ts real purpose however is to en-lighten the dead, whose supreme vision occurs right at the beginning; "what happens after-ward is an ever-deepening descent into illusion and obscuration, down to the ultimatedegradation f new physical birth." (pp. xlix-li).

Jung calls the belief in the supratemporality f the soul the rational basis for the cultof the dead; its irrational basis is in "the psychological need of the living to do somethingfor the departed." (p. 1). He also sees the aim of initiation to be a "reversal" or trans-formation of the living that is, for the dead, projected nto a "Beyond" (p. xl). In thisBuddhist ext, of course, all the experiences are self-created, whether for good (Dharma-K3ya state of perfect enlightenment) r for evil (the karmic llusions of the

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