The Afterlife of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Mayans
The afterlife is where all the souls go after their host dies, but it all depends on what that soul during its life to determine where it stay forever. The Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Mayans all believed that once you die your soul goes to a place either a paradise or hellish place. They were all separated by hundreds of years and were thousands of miles away on different continents. Oddly they all share the same beliefs on the afterlife. The Ancient Greeks believed that the soul good or bad first had to go the underworld realm of Hades, the land of the dead. To reach the land of the dead they had to cross one of the five rivers of the underworld. Once they reached the underworld “the soul of the deceased would be judged by Hades and all the sons of Zeus” (Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Greece and Rome). The Greeks believed that there are three areas where the deceased souls go to after judgment. For pure and blessed souls they go to the Elysium which consisted of green fields, valleys and mountains, everyone there was peaceful, and the Sun always shone there. For ordinary souls they go to the Asphodel Fields which was described by being a dull and dreary place. For evil souls they go to Tartarus which is described as a place of torment and suffering. The Egyptians had complex beliefs about life after death, they considered that death is not the end of one’s life, but a process that one has to go through in order to enter a dimension or complete bliss. Also just like the Greeks the judgment depends on how they lived their lives. The Egyptians spent their life preparing for life after death. According to the ancient mythology all individuals would enter the underworld which was a terrifying dimension which every individual dreaded. “The underworld had its own tests which the individual had to overcome in order to proceed to the blissful afterlife” (Egyptian Afterlife Beliefs). The soul would enter the underworld where it would have to pass certain tests