Underworld: Imagining The Afterlife In Ancient South Italian Vase Painting

Review by David Stuttard On an Apulian funerary vase, a fair-haired young man sits clutching a spear in his left hand as he exclaims in terror, ‘I’m not coming!’ But it is no use. Grabbing his wrist in a vice-like grip is Hermes, escort of dead souls to the Underworld, and his words brook no disobedience: ‘Get up and go to Hades.’ No wonder that the young man is afraid. The peoples of 4th-century BC Apulia, in southern Italy, were as ignorant as we are of what lay beyond the grave, and many shared the sentiments of Greek Anacreon, who lived two centuries before them: ‘The pit of Hades holds such terrors, and the descent to death is wracked with pain. Only one thing is for