LIFE AFTER DEATH~
I recently wrote a novella for an anthology that dealt with a culture I had little knowledge of... Ancient Greece. Classical archaeology wasn't my cup of tea. I confess! I'll probably never hear the end of this now that I've admitted it on the internet... I prefer the "exotic" as some would accuse me of. *rolling eyes* Is it really bad to study something people know little about? I specialized in Meso-American archaeology.
So to write my novella, I needed a decent understanding of what ancient Greeks thought about life, death, and reincarnation. I did not read the entire tome of Alan F. Segal's LIFE AFTER DEATH: A HISTORY OF THE AFTERLIFE IN WESTERN RELIGION. But I highly recommend it for the chapters that guided my reconstruction of the ancient Greek afterlife. Segal takes each literary source available and quotes the evidence that shows what ancient Greeks thought about life, death, and reincarnation. I really did find lots of description of the kingdom of Hades in those few chapters. So, you don't have to have a PhD in literature to read Segal's book. And it is much more interesting than reading something like the Bible or a dictionary.
As for the rest of what I find fascinating in sources like this book, one can use LIFE AFTER DEATH to follow the evolution of thought in Western cultures. Call it ideology or religion. Whatever floats your boat. Just remember, it's better to understand what your characters in historical fiction thought during their day than to assume they all think like the modern Westerner in the United States. ~Skhye
www.skhyemoncrief.com
www.timeguardians.com
So to write my novella, I needed a decent understanding of what ancient Greeks thought about life, death, and reincarnation. I did not read the entire tome of Alan F. Segal's LIFE AFTER DEATH: A HISTORY OF THE AFTERLIFE IN WESTERN RELIGION. But I highly recommend it for the chapters that guided my reconstruction of the ancient Greek afterlife. Segal takes each literary source available and quotes the evidence that shows what ancient Greeks thought about life, death, and reincarnation. I really did find lots of description of the kingdom of Hades in those few chapters. So, you don't have to have a PhD in literature to read Segal's book. And it is much more interesting than reading something like the Bible or a dictionary.
As for the rest of what I find fascinating in sources like this book, one can use LIFE AFTER DEATH to follow the evolution of thought in Western cultures. Call it ideology or religion. Whatever floats your boat. Just remember, it's better to understand what your characters in historical fiction thought during their day than to assume they all think like the modern Westerner in the United States. ~Skhye
www.skhyemoncrief.com
www.timeguardians.com
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