Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-22
HADES A MANS NAME
Discovery Announced by Prof.
Thomas D. Seymour.
BELIEF OF HOMER'S HEROES
Ideas About the Home of Departed
Spirits.
MORTAL VACATIONS RETAINED
Sacrifices to the Dead-Reason for the
Erection Of Great Mortuary Mounds.
Funeral Ceremonies Described.
BY WILLIAM z. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
cord-Herald.
BOSTON, Mass, August 49, 1907.
Prof. Thomas Day Seymour of Yale Uni
versity who knows all about such things,
has discovered that Hades is the name
Of person and not of place, but that
does not relieve sinners from responsibility
nor abolish the doctrine of punishment
after death. 1t is simply an interesting
and important point in classical literature,
just like the discovery many years ago
that Eldorado was the name of man and
not gold mining district The latter term
means The 'Gilded Man and was origi-
nally applied by a Spanish explorer to an
imaginary king who lived in an imaginary
country near the sources of the Orinoco
river and had an imaginary palace whose
walls We're decorated with silver and
whose furniture was made of gold. He
lived in such luxury and extravaganza
that. according to the tale, his servants
bathed him in cocoanut oil every morning
and sprinkled his body with gold dust, so
that he sparklcd in the sun. For that he
was called Eldorado-the gilded-and in
time his name was applied to a mysterious
but unknown country of fabulous wealth.
frof. Seymour knows more about Hades
IMAM 81 NdileT IdleiSl Knew OF ElQOraQO,
and doesn't intend to 60 there; and he
gives us much Of his knowledge in a charm
ing book he has recently written. 1t is
called life in the Homeric Age Prof.
Seymour says that Hades was and sup
pose he still is, the son of Chronos and a
brother OF ZeuS and Poseidon, who divided
among themselves the kingdom of their
father. The realm of murky darkness
was the share of Hades and he is supposed
to be running the government there still.
Only once in the Had of Homer does
Hadas act as a person. however. When
the gods are assembled for conflict on the
Trojan plain and Poseidon shakes the earth
and the mountains Hades leaps from his
may be torn open and expose his 'dolorous
mansions to the peerng day" He is i'm
placable and unyielding," and therefore the
most hateful Of all the gods to mortal man
The Realm of Hades.
Prof. Seymour says that the realm OF
Hades, generally speaking, lies beneath the
earth, like the medieval hell, yet Odysseus
on his visit to that country does not de-
scend through a cavern, but sails to the
land of shades from the Island of Gree
in a single day. 1t lies on the borders of
Oceanus, near the country of the Cimmer-
fanS who are wrapped in mist and clouds
and, on whom the sun never shines The
river which departing souls must cross to
reach Hades is called the Styx but its geo
graphical course is not indicated by Homer
in any way. Prof Seymour has not been
able to find 1t at any place in New England
or elsewhere upon the earth. The ferry
man, Charon, is not mentioned in the Odys-
sey, nor is the river Lethe. Hercules was
sent to fetch his dog Cerberus, but Odys-
seus on his visit sees no gate nor dog, nor
even Hades himself.
How the realm of Hades is lighted Homer
does not tell his readers. He describes 1t
as a gloomy land and Odysseus without
al int
ances, although he does not penetrate into
the Utmost recesses of the place, and it is
not clear how he got there. At the open
ing of the last book of the Odyssey Hermes
leads the souls of Penelope's slain suitors
Along the murky ways past the gates of
the sun, and the country of dreams to the
asphodel plains where dwell the souls, the
images of the dead" Prof. Seymour says
that the opposition between these views
concerning the situation Of the realm of
Hades seems clear and scholars generally
hold to different authorship of these diff
ferent parts of the Odyssey poems although
some would believe that by sailing to the
far west Odysseus was thought to find q
horizontal entrance to the inner part Of
the earth.
"Murky Tartarus."
At the beginning Of the second day of the
battle of Troy, Zeus warns any Of the gods
whom he shall see aiding either Greeks or
Trojans that he will hurl them Into murky
Tartarus, far away, where is the deepest
pit beneath the earth; where are the iron
gates and the bronze threshold, as far be-
meath Hades as is heaven above the earth
but Prof. Seymour declares that Homer
nowhere intmates that Tartarus is a place
of suffering. Its inhabitants, the Titans
are not in chains, and the lack of breezes
can hardly prove the temperature to be I'M
comfortable. He suggests that perhaps 1t
was place to which undesirable gods were
transported in the Homeric age, just as I'M
desirable citizens were transported from
England to New Zealand or Australia a
century ago.
Nor are the Isles Of the Blessed men
toned in Homer. According to a familiar
later view, Prof. Seymour SAYS. the soul
OF dead man was not Immediately adj
mitted TO the realm of Hades but wandered
in loneliness on the confines of that place
until the body was either burned or buried
The soul of Patroclus appears bv nishr 70
Achilles with the stature, eyes, voice and
rafment of his dead friend and SAYS:
Bury me at once. Let me pass the gates
of Hades."
No guide seems to have been needed for
the journey to Hades, just no ferryman
is required for the Styx; nor are any par
ticular rites of burial absolutely necessary.
The ordinary modern care of the dead and
the laying OF flowers upon Their graves are
prompted by no conscious thought that they
are pleased by the adorned collins or the
fragrance of the flowers. Epiourus required
the usual funeral nonorS for himself and
his friends, Cicero tells US although he de-
MED the existence Of the soul after death
Prof Seymour suggests that many a sue
cessor OF Epicurus makes the same demand
and expects handsome monument.
Souls Existence After Death.
The existence Of soul after death Is the
shadowy reflection or imitation Of mans life
on earth, according to Homer HIS idea is
almost as neutral as the Hebrews Sheol.
Even the voices of the dead are but echoes
of their former selves although Pindar de-
scribes them as entertaining themselves with
horse races, gymnastic contests playing
checkers and twanging the Tyre. Evidently
In Pindar's time. Prof. Seymour remarks
ghosts had gained much additional vigor.
According to Homer the souls Of the dead
are as unsubstantial dreams. Death and
sleep are twin brothers and the entrance to
the land of shades lies hard by the country
of drG Pms: but the ghosts in the main pur-
sue e..e occupations in which they were
81 w ha