I was curious as to what an Asphodel was, first off because I work at a garden center and had not really ever heard of one, and secondly because they appear in both Berenice (page 228) and Eleonora (all over the valley). Here is what I found: (I know you hate Wikipedia Dr. Harrison, please forgive me)! "The Asphodel Meadows is a section of the Ancient Greek underworld where indifferent and ordinary souls were sent to live after death. Hades, the Greek name for the underworld (also the name of the god Pluto) is divided into two main sections: Erebus and Tartarus. Erebus was where the dead first entered the underworld. Charon ferried the dead across the river Styx where they then went into Tartarus. Tartarus is the section of the underworld where the dead would spend all of eternity in the place where judgment would order them. Tartarus is then divided into three subsections: the Elysian Fields, the Asphodel Meadows, and Tartarus. The Elysian Fields were for the good and heroic souls where they would be forever happy, similar to the Christian Heaven. Tartarus was where the evil and treacherous souls were sent to live out eternity in horrible punishment, similar to the Christian Hell. The Asphodel Fields is where the souls of people who lived lives of near equal good and evil rested. It essentially was a plain of Asphodel flowers which were the favorite food of the Greek dead. It is described as a ghostly place that is an even less perfect version of life on earth." (Wikipedia under the search word Asphodel) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphodel_Meadows
Kind of morbid huh? Not so much a pretty valley full of love and smiles.
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Morbid indeed, but thank you for posting this! I knew about the Elysian Fields and Tartarus, and I was wondering where the souls of the average go.
I see the fields in a different light. It was only after the two had declared their love for each other after 15 years of playing in the valley that true life began. The river inspired silence. Yet after their declaration, the water began to babble. As we know, the majority of male birds have the great colors for mating and the flamingo showed off his colors to them, fish swam in the river, daisies, which are symbolic of childhood love and sweetness, died away and the ruby-red asphodels” grew .472). It seemed to me with all the mentions of God, angels, seraphims and seraphs that the asphodels were symbolic as well. The asphodel is a type of lily. The flowers are in the valley and in the Old Testament there is the reference to Jesus being called the Lily-of the-Valley. It seems that Eleonora was a sacrifice for the narrator and as he proved himself to keep his promise, was he rewarded with “the second era of my existence”(472), where he kept his promise and then when he leaves it is like a third era where he is allowed to have his “ethereal Ermengarde”(473).
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