Afterpants: Nether Regions Pt. 4 (Asphodel Meadows)
So I found this cool little cgi render by an artist of what a Yokai plane of existence might look like and put it on a pair of Yokai House underwear!
Anyway, part 4 of our foray into the underworld is "Asphodel Meadows."
This comes from the ancient Greek version of the afterlife in which their are several different levels/plains (whatever you want to call them)
Asphodel Meadows (AM) is apparently a place for the normies of the afterlife. They weren't terribly good or bad. They didn't do anything heroic (and the ancient Greeks were big fans of heroism) so they went to a place that was sort of lukewarm in terms of life quality and environment.
At this point I find it necessary to mention that the Greeks essentially stole/borrowed their ideas of the afterlife from earlier cultures such as the Sumerians/Babylonians and the much- more-ancient-than-they... Egyptians.
The Sumerians believed that the afterlife was one, big, dark, dusty room (basically) and it didn't matter how one had lived their life...everybody...everybody went there.
This idea then, became the basis for the Greek concept of Hades. Big and dark, but not entirely morally ambiguous.
Asphodel Meadows is the 'middle ground' for the dead. I mean, if you look at humans today, the situation hasn't changed much.
There are heroes and villains and basically everybody else.
AM is for the everybody else.
There is some debate amoung scholars as to whether or not it was a pleasant place.
Some think that it was "flowery" or even "holy" while others interpret the writing by Homer and others as a sort of monotonous, dull place wherein one is stripped of one's identity
and must perform daily tasks as a sort robot.
Personally I take a middle-ground view on the middle-ground view. Consider the people you know...are they deserving of a bland, robotic eternity? Certainly not!
Everyone has creativity and the ability to help others. And while they might not exercise these powers often, it would simply be a waste to turn them all into eternally mindless ghosts. (I'm referring, of course, to reincarnation...but that's a whole other thing...)
"Asphodel" is the name of a flower that has a sort of ghostly appearance.
It is also a favorite food of the dead so..essentially...AM could refer to a place where there is an abundance of supplies and also quite pretty or (wanting to avoid death) a place of
mourning and sorrow.
Author Steve Reece put it this way;
"Some scholars have tried to resolve the disjunction of a
“flowery Hades” by portraying the asphodel as a foul-smelling,
unattractive plant that grows only on barren ground and so,
among all the specimens of the botanical world, uniquely suited
for the barren topography of Hades. But the ancients—poets,
botanists, physicians, and Homeric commentators alike—speak
of the asphodel with high praise: fragrant to the smell; lovely to
the sight; nutritious, satisfying, and sweet to eat; useful as a
remedy for a host of ailments; and, in the other-world, a soft
bed upon which the souls of the departed may recline with
friends and relatives."
While we here at Afterpants are not particularly fond of ancient Greek beliefs;
(mostly because they were stolen and used for unsavory ends)
taken on it's own, without other context...it seems that AM is a type of underworld that one would indeed desire (versus other afterlives where one may or may not be boiled, sliced apart, deep fried and stabbed repeatedly)
Afterpants awards Asphodel Meadows an enduring 3 Hellbriefs out of 5.
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