Le nekuomanteion du lac Averne I. L’origine de la tradition

Abstract

Several ancient authors locate the scene in the Odyssey where Ulysses evokes the souls of the dead on the shores of Lake Avernus, near Cumae. Our sources also mention the existence of an oracle of the dead (nekyomanteion) at this place. According to them, the Greek name of the lake, Aornos (“without birds”), is linked to the deadly gases emanating from it. However, this study shows that it is a false etymology and it is not because of such emanations that the lake was identified with the place described in the Odyssey. On the contrary, this identification probably took place only after the Greeks began to imagine the entrance to Hades as a deep lake in the 5th century BCE.

Keywords

• oracle of the dead
• catabasis
• environment
• Odyssey
• death