Ancient Light #9 How to Speak to the Dead. The Nekyia. #Paranormal

Ancient Light #9 How to Speak to the Dead. The Nekyia. #Paranormal #GreekClassics


Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. In this episode, we are exploring book 11 of the Odyssey and the occult knowledge it contains. The last part of the show is a reading in the original Greek.

Topics in this episode: Necromancy, Ancient History, Greek, Homer, Nekyuia, Odyssey, Teiresias, Circe, Elpenor, mythology, ritual, ghosts, underworld, Hades, sacrifice, blood, magic, magick, occult, ceremony, classics, paranormal.

To follow along in the Greek: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/t...

Odyssey XI. 20-58
In the Odyssey book ten lines 20-58, we are given a glimpse of a Homeric metaphysics of the dead. It is difficult to say if this specific ritual was a real procedure or only a manifestation of oral tradition. The academic study of ritual and religion is particularly enriched by the detailed procedure to evoke, and Odysseus’ interaction with, the dead in the underworld in these passages. The ritual power of fresh blood and the promise made by Odysseus to sacrifice more in the future is nicely illustrative of ancient ideas about the function of blood in ritual. One of the great points about this selection is that the sacrifice is not a customary sacrifice made to a well-known god. Blood does more than please the ambrosia eaters, it holds a power and value throughout the worlds of the non-mortal it would appear through my reading of my translation. Blood seems to give the dead a temporary taste of life force. It is ethereal heroin so to speak. The ritual specifications, ingredients, and corollary instructions from Circe create a detailed set of religious or mythical structures that open up many helpful hints and queues many questions about ancient Greek ideas regarding the afterlife and the nature of one’s non-physical form or soul. 

English Trans. S Dotson. Hom. Od.11.20-58
11.20 Then coming to a spot, we beached our ship and took out the sheep
11.21 We were going to the current of Oceanus
11.22 until we are to arrive at the place which Circe told us.
11.23 There Perimedes and Eurylochus held the sacrificial victims.
11.24 I drew my sharp sword from my thigh and
11.25 dug up a pit a great as a cubit from here to there,
11.26 around it I poured a libation to all the deceased,
11.27 first with mild and sweet wine
11.28 the third with water, sprinkling it on white barley-meal.
11.29 I was making much entreat to the powerless heads of the dead:
11.30 when I go to Ithaka, I will throw a barren cow, she being one of my best,
11.31 onto the sacrificial pyre and fill it with goods,
11.32 and to Teiresias alone I will sacrifice separately a ram,
11.33 all black, who was our most outstanding of our fold.
11.34 Then with those vows and prayers, there to the dead,
11.35 I had made my entreat, taking those sheep, I cut their throats
11.36 into the pit, and dark clouds of blood flowed.
11.37 The spirits of the dead gathered out of Erebus;
11.38 young married women, youth, unfortunate old men, tender
11.39 female virgins having endured sorrow in their hearts,
11.40 and many who have been wounded by bronze tipped spears,
11.41 men killed in war, with their armor splattered in blood,
11.42 the multitudes roamed wildly about the pit form one place to another
11.43 with an unspeakable cry. Pale fear was beginning to take me
11.44 there and then I called, rousing my companions with the sheep,
11.45 Those sheep which lie there having been slaughtered with the pitiless bronze,
11.46 to cleave and flay them, and to make prayer to the gods,
11.47 to mighty Hades and dread Persephone.
11.48 I myself drew my sharp sword from my thigh
11.49 and sat. I did not allow the powerless head of the dead
11.50 to go nearer to the blood, until I had inquired of Teiresias.
11.51 The first soul to come was my companion Elpenor,
11.52 for he had never been buried under the broad-wayed earth,
11.53 for we left his body in the hall of Circe
11.54 unlamented and unburied, since another task urged us on.
11.55 When I saw him I took pity in my heart, crying, 
11.56 and I began speaking, addressing him with winged words.
11.57 "Elpenor, how did you come from beneath the underworld?
11.58 Coming on foot, you have been faster than me with my black ship."