Of Death In Pharsalia Erictho's Power To Raise The Dead?

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In Literature, authors want their works to have a moral theme or lesson that the reader can learn from. However, other artists can also other motives that they want their readers to take away with. For example, authors can write a piece of literature that provokes a sense of feeling such as playing with one’s sense of anxiety or excitement. Witches in literature usually portray or play with the fears of society. Erictho uses her power to brutally raise the dead, which played on the fears of the afterlife. In Lucan’s ancient Roman work, Pharsalia Erictho, the witch plays with the fears of people by mutilating the body of one of the soldiers who have died in battle and brings the soldier back to life. This (Erictho’s) power to raise the dead goes against everything that is practiced and believed about death in ancient and modern times. Furthermore, throughout history society has respected the dead, thus, through the brutality and disrespecting the peace of the dead goes against the beliefs and practices. Therefore, through looking at the ways the ancient people and even today have respected death, which gives more of a perspective on how Erictho’s power to raise the dead and then to disfigure the body is such an awful power to possess and act upon. In Pharsalia, defecates the body of the …show more content…

Therefore, by doing this they filled the tombs with food, drink, jewelry, and furniture to make their transition easier. Moreover, they decorated the walls with the Book of the Dead to help the soul reach the stars in the sky or join the sun god (“Egyptian Mythology”). Lastly, ancient Egyptians have also been known to bury their slaves with their masters in order to help serve their masters in the afterlife (”Funeral Rites”). Overall, the Egyptians went to great lengths to respect the body, which greatly contrasted to the mutilation of the corpses by Erictho in

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