THE ‘BITTER VOYAGE’: DEATH AS A JOURNEY ON ATTIC WHITE LEKYTHOI

The article studies the way death was depicted on Attic white-ground lekythoi. On these vases, death is portrayed as a journey which takes place in three stages under the guidance and protection of the mythical psychopompoi: Hypnos and Thanatos who carry the dead to their tomb, Hermes who leads them to the banks of the river Acheron, and the ferryman Charon in whose boat they will cross the river to reach the underworld. The presence of these mythical guides is reassuring, since even though they are agents of death they are neither frightening nor menacing. Such scenes provide comfort to the living relatives of the dead and make the notion of death seem less terrifying. These images are also influenced by the democratic ideology of Athens promoting the idea of equality in death.