Editing Afterlife (section)

===Ancient Greek and Roman religions===
{{main|Greek underworld}}
The Greek god [[Hades]] is known in [[Greek mythology]] as the king of the [[underworld]], a place where souls live after death.<ref>F. P. Retief and L. Cilliers, "Burial customs, the afterlife and the pollution of death in ancient Greece", ''Acta Theologica'' '''26'''(2), 2006, p. 45 ([http://www.ajol.info/index.php/actat/article/viewFile/52560/41166 PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006083809/http://www.ajol.info/index.php/actat/article/viewFile/52560/41166 |date=6 October 2014 }}).</ref> The Greek god [[Hermes]], the messenger of the gods, would take the dead soul of a person to the underworld (sometimes called Hades or the House of Hades). Hermes would leave the soul on the banks of the River [[Styx]], the river between life and death.<ref>Social Studies School Service, ''Ancient Greece'', 2003, pp.&nbsp;49–51</ref>

[[Charon (mythology)|Charon]], also known as the ferryman, would take the soul across the river to Hades, if the soul had gold: upon burial, the family of the dead soul would put coins under the deceased's tongue. Once crossed, the soul would be judged by [[Aeacus]], [[Rhadamanthus]] and King [[Minos]]. The soul would be sent to [[Elysium]], [[Tartarus]], or [[Asphodel Fields]]. The Elysian Fields were for the ones that lived pure lives. It consisted of green fields, valleys and mountains, everyone there was peaceful and contented, and the Sun always shone there. Tartarus was for the people that blasphemed against the gods or were rebellious and consciously evil.<ref>Perry L. Westmoreland, ''Ancient Greek Beliefs'', 2007, pp.&nbsp;68–70</ref> In Tartarus, the soul would be punished by being burned in lava or stretched on racks. The Asphodel Fields were for a varied selection of human souls including those whose sins equaled their goodness, those who were indecisive in their lives, and those who were not judged.

Some heroes of Greek legend are allowed to visit the underworld. The Romans had a similar belief system about the afterlife, with Hades becoming known as [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]]. In the ancient Greek myth about the [[Labours of Heracles]], the hero [[Heracles]] had to travel to the underworld to capture [[Cerberus]], the three-headed guard dog, as one of his tasks.

In ''[[Dream of Scipio]]'', [[Cicero]] describes what seems to be an [[out of body experience]], of the [[soul]] traveling high above the Earth, looking down at the small planet, from far away.<ref>N. Sabir, ''Heaven Hell Or'', 2010, p. 147</ref>

In Book VI of [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', the hero, [[Aeneas]], travels to the underworld to see his father. By the River Styx, he sees the souls of those not given a proper burial, forced to wait by the river until someone buries them. While down there, along with the dead, he is shown the place where the wrongly convicted reside, the [[fields of sorrow]] where those who committed suicide and now regret it reside, including Aeneas' former lover, the warriors and shades, Tartarus (where the titans and powerful non-mortal enemies of the Olympians reside) where he can hear the groans of the imprisoned, the palace of [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], and the fields of Elysium where the descendants of the divine and bravest heroes reside. He sees the river of forgetfulness, [[Lethe]], which the dead must drink to forget their life and begin anew. Lastly, his father shows him all of the future heroes of Rome who will live if Aeneas fulfills his destiny in founding the city.

Other eschatological views populate the ancient-Greek worldview. For instance, [[Plato]] argued for reincarnation in several dialogues, including the ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]''.<ref>See ''Timaeus'' 90–92. For a recent scholarly treatment, see Douglas R. Campbell, "Plato's Theory of Reincarnation: Eschatology and Natural Philosophy," ''Review of Metaphysics'' 75 (4): 643–665. 2022.</ref>