Overview

What happens to us when we die? What might the afterlife look like? For the ancient Greeks, the dead lived on, overseen by Hades in the Underworld. We read of famous sinners, such as Sisyphus, forever rolling his rock, and the fierce guard dog Kerberos, who was captured by Herakles. For mere mortals, ritual and religion offered possibilities for ensuring a happy existence in the beyond, and some of the richest evidence for beliefs about death comes from southern Italy, where the local Italic peoples engaged with Greek beliefs. Monumental funerary vases that accompanied the deceased were decorated with consolatory scenes from myth, and around forty preserve elaborate depictions of Hades's domain. For the first time in over four decades, these compelling vase paintings are brought together in one volume, with detailed commentaries and ample illustrations. The catalogue is accompanied by a series of essays by leading experts in the field, which provides a framework for understanding these intriguing scenes and their contexts. Topics include attitudes toward the afterlife in Greek ritual and myth, inscriptions on leaves of gold that provided guidance for the deceased; funerary practices and religious beliefs in Apulia, and the importance accorded to Orpheus and Dionysos. Drawing from a variety of textual and archaeological sources, this volume is an essential source for anyone interested in religion and belief in the ancient Mediterranean.

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9781606067345

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This handsome book explores Greek concepts of the afterlife as they are expressed in images of the Underworld on monumental funerary vases from Southern Italy. The corpus of some 40 vases is placed within its historical and archaeological context by a set of essays by prominent specialists. The book will join an earlier Getty publication, Oliver Taplin's Pots & Plays (2007), as an essential resource for the study of vase-painting in Greek South Italy. --Alan Shapiro, Dietrich von Bothmer Research Scholar, Greek and Roman Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Author Information

David Saunders is associate curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He coedited The Restoration of Ancient Bronzes: Naples and Beyond (Getty, 2013) and Dangerous Perfection: Ancient Funerary Vases from Southern Italy (Getty, 2016).

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