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To: alt.magick.tyagi From: rdiller@quads.uchicago.edu (Mark Diller) Subject: Re: Shades -- the subjects of Hades Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 14:58:30 GMT Quoting: |tyagI@houseofkAos.abyss.coM (tyagi mordred nagasiva) |>Yuga2@aol.com (Tery Steelman) |>Hades has some interesting nicknames, one of which is "the Wealthy One." |>He was called by this name in general conversation.. no one wanted to draw |>his attention with his true name. "Ruler of Many" in reference to his |>subjects..the shades.... | |Is there any more information available about these shades? I am reminded |of the dark howling creatures which came to carry off the antagonists in |the movie 'Ghost', and as I'm going to construct an inversion of that |film for my own ritual purposes (the individual dying and being carried |off to rule in the Lower World), I'd like to learn a bit more about these |shades. Thanks. The best literary picture is the Odyssey, in two primary spots: when Odysseus visits the Underworld, and when the shades of the recently-slaughtered suitors reach the Underworld towards the end of the poem. Mostly they are pictured as insubstantial and insensible beings, "gibbering" and "squeaking" being the usual translations of the Greek terms (which I don't know offhand; maybe someone else can fill this in?). It wasn't until the shades had partaken of the blood that they were able to speak with Odysseus, or even see him for that matter. In iconography, shades were usually depicted as sort of Tinkerbell-type figures, very small human shapes with wings. I've heard some speculation that butterflies in Bronze Age art were intended to depict shades, but that's entirely speculative. As a single good source, I'd suggest Emily Vermeule's book, _Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry._ -- Mark Diller - Univ. Chicago Divinity School - aka zagreus@aol.com
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