ABSTRACT
Among cognitivists, there is debate over whether the widely distributed belief in the persistence of psychological states after death has an intuitive basis or is solely the result of learning. Greek representations of death varied widely, but at all periods, afterlife beliefs were more common than the belief that death is the annihilation of the individual. Counterintuitive concepts of exceptional dead people with superhuman agency were also widespread. No later than the sixth century, belief in the powerful dead led to the distinctively Greek institution of hero cult. During the same period, the Eleusinian and Bacchic-Orphic mysteries promised “life” after death: unlike the majority of humanity, the privileged initiate would retain full mental and sensory capacities in pleasant surroundings. Popular eschatologies of punishment and reward also appeared. By the fourth century if not earlier, many individuals aspired not only to a “better” afterlife but also to one in which they would enjoy hero-like or even godlike status. The illustrative essays examine the role of doctrine in the Eleusinian Mysteries, compare fourth-century tomb inscriptions with the Bacchic-Orphic gold tablet texts and detail three cases in which individuals were worshiped in hero cults soon after their deaths.
