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Very useful info.
sorry if this might be an upsetting subject, but what was believed to happen to the souls of those who committed suicide? i read that hekate has reign over and can command spirits that still wander earth due to having died traumatic deaths, like murder or suicide, but that's all i know
Hello, Anon! Thank you for the forewarning, but I've studied ancient Greek and Roman funerary practices and I worship Persephone/ Proserpina and Hades/Dis Pater, so the subject of your ask isn't upsetting to me at all.
In ancient Greece, those who died by suicide were regarded as innocent victims and their bodies were accorded proper burial. ¹
As far as I've been able to determine, the cause of death has no bearing on the fate of the soul of the deceased - deeds are what matter. So if a person has, in life, performed notable or heroic deeds or been initiated into the Mysteries, they receive places of honor in Elysium or the Isles of the Blest. Those who were basically good in life are sent to the Asphodel Meadows. Those who commit hubris (a serious transgression against divine law, such as flagrant disrespect of the gods, cannibalism, violations of xenia, or the murder of kin) receive punishment for a short term or eternity. *
The wandering of souls on earth was generally attributed to the deceased not having received "the honors due to the dead", meaning proper burial and the subsequent commemorations with their names spoken aloud and offerings of garlands, food, and drink at the grave throughout the year and across generations. Those who died by suicide or murder, unbeknownst to their families or friends, may have received proper burial and festival offerings from charitable strangers, but not the rites and offerings expected from their living family, and some of them may been unburied as well as untended. Therefore, they would be among the restless souls led from the underworld by Hekate each month on the eve of the new moon, seeking redress of wrongdoing and their honorable due. Hekate's deipnon, a plate of food crumbs and scraps, was left at crossroads at this time, an offering to appease the goddess and the wandering spirits.²
Wandering spirits were also believed to congregate in the streets of towns during the three-day Anthesteria festival in the spring of the year. On Chytroi, the final day of the Anthesteria, a special porridge of fruit and seeds was offered to those spirits and the last act of the festival was to proclaim to them, “‘Out! Out! Anthesteria is over!” Herbert Jennings Rose proposed that these wandering spirits were "...the spirits of the unburied or at least untended dead...Once a year measures were taken to give these spiritual vagabonds at least a little relief, which done they were got rid of with all convenient speed." ³
It's important to note that when the ancient Greeks made offerings to propitiate restless spirits, they did so at some distance from their homes. One knows one's own beloved dead, and has a good idea whether encouraging any of them to hang out inside one's home would be helpful, but a random wandering soul can become a nuisance and should be encouraged to return to the underworld.
Hope this helps!
*I have no idea how the ancient Greeks who believed in reincarnation worked this. Presumably, everyone got to select some aspects of their next life, except for those who'd reached ultimate spiritual development.
¹ Naiden, F.S. "The Sword Did It: A Greek Explanation of Suicide." The Classical Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 1, The Classical Association, Cambridge University Press], 2015, pp. 85–95, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43905643
² Smith, K.F. "Hekate's Suppers." Temenos, https://sites.google.com/site/hellenionstemenos/Home/festivals/hekatesdeipnon/hekate-d-1
³ Rose, Herbert Jennings. “Keres and Lemures.” The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 41, no. 4, Cambridge University Press, 1948, pp. 217–28, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1508045
I also consulted:
"Greek Underworld." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 October 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_underworld
The Greek Way of Death by Robert Garland, 2001 (X) is the best starter text the study of ancient Greek attitudes about death, the dead, and funerary practices, plus it has a rich bibliography for your tangents.