Virgil perceives an entrance to the underworld as a cave by the shores of Italy consisting of a lake and wood close to the mouth, with a lake inside the cave (Torjussen 73). One can only get through by offering a golden tree branch to the Cocytus ferryman (Solmsen 13). According to the philosopher, there are different kinds of souls in the water that humbly requests assistance in their crossover to the boat. According to Virgil, the only access to the ship is by having the body buried with the alternative being swimming in the smelly waters (Bremmer 185). Virgil describes a broad range of souls based on their personalities, characters and behavior of individuals during their lifetime, giving a description of souls that intermingle with physical beings, with role to ensure that there is harmony in the universe.
There are diverse places for particular souls such as the ones of people who die as infants and those falsely accused and hence condemned to death. Other areas consist of souls that died through suicide and those that got depressed leading to death. He also describes souls of people who died in important battles. In the midst, there is Pyriphlegethon which is a river of huge rocks and inferno and is watched over by Tisiphone (Feeney 17). Further away is the Tartarus, which a pit whose depth is twice the height of the Olympus Mountains (Feeney 14). Virgil says that there are places for different souls based on the character and behavior of the individual before death. For example, there are places for souls of those who hated their siblings, fraudsters and even those who acted behind their master’s back. The souls of the corrupt and the swindlers exist too. A wide range of punishments await the different souls as dictated by the character of the individual before death.
However, there is a part of the underworld where no suffering exists and is referred to as the Elysium fields (Bremmer 195). In the field, the different souls are occupied while engaging in physical activities such as wrestling and dancing as they bath in the sun. Aeneas discovers from his father that there will be intense fights and suffering before his seed would ultimately become the great and vast territory referred to as Rome, which explains the need for physical exercises in the field (Solmsen 12). The author describes evil souls that await ferocious punishments for their evil deeds. The issue of the rebirth of souls is prominent as determined by the content of the individual’s character during their physical life.
It is clear that the author distinguishes between good and bad souls whereby the bad souls consist of those who committed evil in their lifetime. On the other hand, there are good souls of those people who demonstrated nationalistic pride and patriotism as they concentrated on the well-being of their leaders and their subjects (Feeney 18). The good souls will experience rebirth at some point while the evil souls would be subjected to destruction through the river of huge rocks and the inferno.
The good souls depart from the underworld to occupy the earth and sky while mixing with other beings in the universe. The good souls perceive all the beings as an extension of the wider body whose function is to ensure there is peace, harmony, and tranquility of the universe. Such souls belong to the exceptional men during their lifetime. In the narration, Aeneas has the goal to convert in that state before his death (Solmsen 10). The souls are divine and omnipresent and should not let themselves lose that aspect through the emotions and sentiments of the physical bodies.
Works Cited
Torjussen, Stian Sundell. "The “Orphic-Pythagorean” Eschatology of the Gold Tablets from Thurii and the Sixth Book of Virgil's Aeneid." Symbolae Osloenses 83.1 (2008): 68-83.
Bremmer, Jan. "The Golden Bough: Orphic, Eleusinian, and Hellenistic-Jewish Sources of Virgil’s Underworld in Aeneid VI." Kernos. Revue Internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique 22 (2009): 183-208.
Solmsen, Friedrich. "Greek Ideas of the Hereafter in Virgil's Roman Epic." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 112.1 (1968): 8-14.
Feeney, Denis C. "History and revelation in Vergil's underworld." Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (New Series) 32 (1986): 1-24.
