page_title: Ghost
section_title: Archaic and Classical Greece
hierarchical_section_title: Ghost / History / Classical Antiquity / Archaic and Classical Greece
caption_attribution_description: English: Clytemnestra tries to awake the sleeping Erinyes; Orestes, here unseen, is being purified by Apollo on the right. Detail of the side A from an Apulian red-figure bell-krater, 380–370 BC. From Armento? Français&#160;: Clytemnestre essayant de réveiller les Érinyes endormies; Oreste (à droite, non visible ici) est en train d'être purifié par Apollon. Détail de la face A d'un cratère en cloche apulien à figures rouges, 380-370 av. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: Armento&#160;?
context_page_description: In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.
  The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals rather than humans have also been recounted. They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. According to a 2009 study by the Pew Research Center, 18% of Americans say they have seen a ghost.
  The overwhelming consensus of science is that ghosts do not exist.
context_section_description: Ghosts appeared in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, in which they were described as vanishing "as a vapor, gibbering and whining into the earth". Homer's ghosts had little interaction with the world of the living. Periodically they were called upon to provide advice or prophecy, but they do not appear to be particularly feared. Ghosts in the classical world often appeared in the form of vapor or smoke, but at other times they were described as being substantial, appearing as they had been at the time of death, complete with the wounds that killed them.
  By the 5th century BC, classical Greek ghosts had become haunting, frightening creatures who could work to either good or evil purposes. The spirit of the dead was believed to hover near the resting place of the corpse, and cemeteries were places the living avoided. The dead were to be ritually mourned through public ceremony, sacrifice, and libations, or else they might return to haunt their families. The ancient Greeks held annual feasts to honor and placate the spirits of the dead, to which the family ghosts were invited, and after which they were "firmly invited to leave until the same time next year."
  The 5th-century BC play Oresteia includes an appearance of the ghost of Clytemnestra, one of the first ghosts to appear in a work of fiction.
caption: Apulian red-figure bell krater depicting the ghost of Clytemnestra waking the Erinyes, date unknown
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