Overview

An Open Access edition is available on the Liverpool University Press website, thanks to funding from St John’s College, Oxford, through a ‘Meeting of Minds’ grant. Death is common and inescapable – everyone will agree. Yet, how one imagines the experience of dying and the beyond is very individual. Ancient cultures were not indifferent to this grim and painful moment and ‘the unknown beyond’. Needless to say, representations of the final moments and transition to the world of the dead filled many pages and paintings of the past. Unsurprisingly perhaps, given that no one comes back to tell the story, the world of the after-death is stained by perception of the process of dying and a negative reflection of the world of the living. The present book explores the ideas regarding death, dying and the world beyond death of those who came long before us, living in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant, ancient Greece, Etruria Rome, and Inca culture (for comparative purposes). Even though separated by centuries, the reader will be surprised that the ancient experience of ‘the unknown’ does not seem unfamiliar, but still has much to offer in terms of reflection on ‘when we are not’.

Full Product Details

Author:   Karolina Sekita ,  Katherine Southwood
Publisher:   Liverpool University Press
Imprint:   Liverpool University Press
ISBN:  

9781802077582

ISBN 10:   1802077588
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   03 June 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Katherine E. Southwood and Karolina Sekita Section I. Processing Death Introduction to Section 1 Katherine E. Southwood and Karolina Sekita Chapter 1. Death and Mourning in Euripides’ Alcestis Richard Hunter Chapter 2. The Mesopotamians’ Perception of Death in Metaphor Dina Katz Chapter 3. Rethinking Depictions of Altars on Etruscan Mythological Sarcophagi Valeria Riedemann Lorca Section II. Perceiving Death Through Ritual and Burial Introduction to Section 2 Katherine E. Southwood and Karolina Sekita Chapter 4. A Disregard of Decency: Concepts and Metaphors of “Waste” and “Binding” Behind Some Non-Normative Burial Rituals in Ancient Greece and Modern Greek Folklore Dimitrios Bosnakis Chapter 5. The Bitter Taste of Death: Mourning for the Young in Ancient Rome Valerie M. Hope Chapter 6. Memory, Monumentality, and the Tomb of the Royal Steward Matthew J. Suriano Section III. “The Beyond” Introduction to Section 2 Katherine E. Southwood and Karolina Sekita Chapter 7. Where Does the Soul Go? Some Thoughts on Etruscan Afterlife Cornelia Weber-Lehmann Chapter 8. Grief is Displayed as a Mix Between Festival and Rite: The Roman Emperor and the Experience of Death Panayiotis Christoforou Chapter 9. Imagining the Afterlife in the Psalms: The Episode of Mitchell Dahood and His Commentary Christopher B. Hays Reflective Epilogue Jan N. Bremmer

Reviews

‘From Mesopotamia to Etruria, Greek tragedy to the Psalms, deaths at the margins to mourning a Roman emperor, Sekita and Southwood have curated an ambitious book that embraces a diverse range of cultures, mediums, and approaches, extending a welcome invitation to readers to venture beyond belief and funerary practice and into the realms of the imagination.’ Dr Emily Clifford, University of Warwick ‘Death Imagined is a welcome addition to ancient death studies. Unlike studies that seek to recreate cultural contexts, the authors analyze perceptions, individual and collective, of death and dying. This volume will advance sensory studies of death.’ Professor Mario Erasmo, The University of Georgia

Author Information

Karolina Sekita is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Tel Aviv. She researches ancient Greek religion and its interactions with the Mediterranean cultures. Katherine Southwood is Professor of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.

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