The relationship between the living and the dead has been an important aspect of human society since the beginning of recorded history. In ancient times, supernatural encounters with the dead occurred most often when the living failed in their duties to the deceased by neglecting their proper burial or refusing to visit their tombs. Negligence of this kind could prompt a haunting. The living could also summon the spirits of the dead with magical spells in order to learn information that only the deceased could know, a practice known as “necromancy,” a Greek term that means “divination by means of communication with the spirits of the dead.”
Ghosts appear in some of the earliest works of European literature, dating back to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey (c. 700 BCE). The descriptions of the restless dead in the oldest Greek sources provided the template for depictions of them for centuries to come. The ancients described ghosts as shadows in human form or as insubstantial corpses, stained with the blood of the wounds that killed them. Some were as black as the night; others were pallid from their loss of blood and the lack of sunlight in the underworld. Ancient apparitions swarmed like bees and flocked like night-birds near the caves and riverbanks that provided entrance to the realm of the dead. Their voices ranged from low groans and baleful mutterings to high-pitched squeaks and gibbering.
In most cases, the souls of the recently deceased made the journey to their subterranean realm (Hades) without any trouble, but certain kinds of death agitated the soul, causing it to linger on the threshold of the world of the living as a ghost. These restless souls included people who had died before their time, primarily infants, but also men and women who had died before marriage. The souls of those killed by violence tarried among the living as well, especially suicides and warriors who were slain in combat. Lastly, those whose corpses remained unburied were also exiled among the living. Among them were those unfortunate souls who died in shipwrecks, for their bodies could find no rest in the storm-tossed sea.
The restless dead were particularly susceptible to the power of necromancers, who worked spells to summon souls, bind them to their will, and exploit them for information. Many ghosts in ancient literature appeared in a necromantic context. Rites for the summoning of restless souls involved a ceremony of evocation, first described in Homer’s Odyssey (see below) and elaborated in later literature. The summoner dug a shallow pit, into which he or she poured libations of honey-sweetened milk, wine, and water, and made offerings of barley and blood. There followed a burnt sacrifice and prayers to the gods of the dead, including Hades and Persephone.
The response of ghosts to necromantic binding varied considerably. Some were eager to return to the world of the living for conversation, even briefly. Others were reluctant to speak. Bitter that their otherworldly peace had been disturbed, only the proper spells could compel them to converse. Ghosts also appeared to necromancers in their dreams. In these cases, it is unclear if the rituals of summoning were performed prior to sleep or if they took place in the dream sequence that culminated in the appearance of an apparition.
What could be gained by summoning a ghost? A necromantic encounter was a useful way to learn the cause of a haunting and to put a stop to it. Ghosts liked nothing more than to talk about the circumstances of their own deaths and often aided in laying their own spirits to rest by revealing the identity of their murderers or the location of their unburied bodies. The restless dead tended to hover near the location of their mortal remains, whether it was in a tomb or not, and therefore knew what went on in the vicinity of their corpses. It was also believed that ghosts had access to important information shared by the spirits of the recently slain, with whom they had conversed in the underworld. In some cases, however, necromancers summoned the spirits of the dead to exploit important skills that the deceased had in life, especially the power of prophecy.