Asphodel Meadows

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The Greek Underworld
Residents:
Persephone Hades Minos Aeacus	Rhadamanthys Charon Cerberus
Geography:
Acheron Cocytus Tartarus Lethe Elysion	Styx Phlegethon Asphodel Meadows Erebus
Famous inmates:
Ixion Sisyphus	Tantalus The Titans
Related:
Greek mythology	Greek religion

The Asphodel Meadows is a section of the Ancient Greek underworld where indifferent and ordinary souls were sent to live after death. Hades, the Greek name for the underworld (also the name of the god Hades) is divided into two main sections: Erebus and Tartarus. Erebus was were the dead first entered the underworld. Charon ferried the dead across the river Acheron where they then went into Tartarus. Tartarus is the section of the underworld where the dead would spend all of eternity in the place where judgment would order them. Tartarus is then divided into three subsections: the Elysian Fields, the Asphodel Meadows, and Tartarus. The Elysian Fields was for the good and heroic souls where they would be forever happy, similar to Christian Heaven. Tartarus was where the evil and treacherous souls were sent to live out eternity in horrible punishment, similar to the Christian Hell.

Geography

The Asphodel Meadows is where the souls of people who lived lives of near equal good and evil rested. It essentially was a plain of Asphodel flowers which were the favorite food of the Greek dead. It is described as a ghostly place that is an even less perfect version of life on earth.

Popular culture

In the computer game, Age of Mythology, shades, or the ghostly forms of the Greek dead appear to help the followers of Hades and Arkantos in the campaigns. They are described to live in a land "that was not necessarily horrible, but without honor or glory. If anything, shades were pitied more than feared". Presumably, this land is the Asphodel Meadows, as it describes neither torture nor happiness.

 

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