Everyone studies American History while they're in school, and we
usually take a stab at our state's history, too. But how well do you know your
ghost history?
One of the first reports of ghosts comes to us from a 5th-century
B.C. Greek historian. According to Herodotus, Periander, a 5th-century B.C.
tyrant in Corinth, Greece, was visited by his wife, who returned from the dead
to help Periander find an object he had lost. And Roman statesman and author
Cicero (106-43 B.C.) told of Simonides, who, in an act of kindness, buried the
body of a stranger. The stranger returned the kindness by appearing to
Simonides in order to advise him not to board a ship on which he intended to
sail. Simonides heeded the warning, and the ship was lost at sea.
Ghosts continued to pop up in classic Greek and Roman literature,
and a few examples include:
- The spirit of Patroclus appeared to his comrade Achilles during the war at Troy, requesting to be properly cremated and bearing the bad news that Achilles would also perish there during the war.
- The wife of Aeneas was burned during the sacking of Troy but returned to console her grieving spouse.
- Ulysses was visited by the ghost of Elpenor, one of his crew members who fell to his death on Circe's Island. Elpenor asked that Ulysses return to the island to suitably bury his body.
- Roman emperor Caligula was assassinated and then quickly cremated. He haunted the Lamian Gardens where his ashes were buried until he was finally given what he considered a proper burial with rites befitting an emperor. He also was said to haunt the theater where he was murdered until that structure was destroyed by fire.
- Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 18) speaks of the spirit of the murdered Remus returning to name his assailant.
- In De divinatione, Cicero describes two men staying at a tavern. The innkeeper murders one of the men, and his ghost appears to his friend to tell him where his body is hidden so that he may be buried.
- The Greek biographer Plutarch (A.D. 46?-120?), in his Life of Cimon, writes that the baths at Chaeronea were haunted. The ghost was reported to be Damon, a violent man who was murdered there and who returned regularly to moan and make other noises that were so disturbing the baths were eventually sealed up by nearby residents.
What may be the first account of a haunted house is found in a
letter written by Roman author, statesman and orator Pliny the Younger (A.D.
62?-c.113), who wrote his patron, Lucias Sura, about a villa in Athens. It
seems that no one would rent the home because of its resident ghost, who would
scare overnight guests to the point they would abandon their belongings in
hasty escape.
In the dead of night, the phantom would awaken the household with
the clanking of chains and other horrific noises that would grow louder and
louder, until, suddenly, the hideous spectre of an old man would appear,
complete with a long, matted beard and disheveled white hair -- the very picture
of abject filth and misery. His thick legs were loaded down with heavy chains,
which he was cursed to drag wearily along with low, painful moans. His wrists
were shackled, and he would stop every so often to raise his arms and shake his
bonds in either an attempt to frighten those unfortunate enough to witness him
or in an impotent show of anger at his sad and wretched state of affairs.
But the notorious reputation of the villa didn't stop Athenian
philosopher Athenodorus from leasing it. He was short on funds and found the
inexpensive rent too much of a bargain to turn down.
According to Pliny, Athenodorus met the ghost during his first
night in the villa. Awakened by the rattle of chains, Athenodorus was soon met
by the vision of the ragged, bound old man. Deciding it was easier to be
frightened than to be homeless, Athenodorus stood his ground. The old man
beckoned for the philosopher to follow him, but Athenodorus refused. So the old
man clanked his chains and moaned pitifully until Athenodorus agreed to
accompany him. The spirit floated into the garden, pointed to a spot on the
ground and vanished.
The next morning, Athenodorus visited the local authorities and
told his tale. The group returned to dig up the garden, and there, in the very
spot indicated by the ghost, was uncovered a human skeleton, bound in chains.
The bones were reburied properly, the house was purified, and the ghost never
returned.
While previous writings had spirits visiting to request a proper
burial, assist loved ones, etc., ghostly missions appeared to change with the
advent of Christianity, and apparitions of the Dark and Middle ages frequently
returned to beg the pardon of those sinned against and to atone for their sins.
These ghosts usually appeared in human form and frequently bore marks, such as
burns and scars, showing the suffering they were enduring in purgatory. And
almost all of the ghosts of the era warned the living of the need to obey the
sacraments and laws of the Church.
According to Roman Catholic theology, purgatory is an ethereal
state or place that is often thought to be between heaven and hell. The souls
of those who have died in grace must suffer while being cleansed of their
pardonable sins. They are then granted admittance to heaven.
The first official use of the word "purgatory" is
sometimes credited to an ecclesiastical letter written to Pope Innocent IV in
1254. Purgatory was discussed at the Council of Lyons in 1274 and again at the
Council of Florence (1438-1443). The Councils declared that communication to
the dead and messages from the dead were a reality.
But the wheels of change began to spin during the 16th century,
when Protestant writers and Reformation thinkers began to question the very
nature of the afterlife -- and ghosts.
While the Council of Trent (1545-1563) confirmed the Catholic
Church's belief in a spirit-inhabited purgatory, Protestants began preaching
that ghostly apparitions were merely illusions caused by angels or, more
likely, demons.
Catholic writer N. Taillepied (d. 1589), a Capuchin monk and
Doctor of Theology, also suggested the presence of satanic spirits, saying they
could take the form of deceased loved ones, and he listed several ways to tell
if one was dealing with a demon, as opposed to a good or neutral spirit. According
to Taillepied, an evil spirit was more likely to:
- Hurt you, such as by biting or pinching, or cause physical damage to your house or belongings.
- Flatter or tempt you. Apparently, angelic spirits either won't or don't need to do so.
- Appear as a lion, bear, black dog, toad, snake or cat. A good ghost would manifest itself as a dove, lamb, handsome man with a halo, or person dressed in white.
- Have loud, harsh voices, speaking with heresy and conceit, particularly if speaking ill of the Church. Good spirits have soothing, musical voices and admit to their sins with tears and groans.
Fortunately, Taillepied did offer suggestions as to what to do if
an evil spirit was encountered. While he explained that a sword would have no
more effect on an apparition than a pin in a pincushion, a prayer and the sign
of the cross on the forehead could work miracles. But just to be safe, it also
didn't hurt if one would avoid speaking any blasphemy and spend the rest of
one's life obeying and taking part in the sacraments of the Church.
Louis Lavatar, Swiss reformer and Protestant author, said in his
1750 book on ghosts, De Spectris, that most Catholic ghost sightings could be
explained away as trickery, human error or natural causes. He also dismissed all
reports by women because they were "given to fear more than men" and
are more prone to hallucinations. He did not, however, discredit all reports by
drunken men.
But while the Protestant church's official position was that
apparitions could be explained away, most of its followers believed differently
-- until the reign of King James.
When King James I (1566-1625), who had ruled Scotland, came to the
throne of England at the beginning of the 17th century, the Inquisition was in
its final days, but James remained a fervent enemy of sorcery and, in fact,
penned the anti-witchcraft book, Demonologie (1597). According to James,
neither the spirits of the dead nor angels appeared as ghosts. Rather, Satan
was the source for all apparitions. James believed that Satan could assume the
form of any deceased person, even reanimate the actual corpse, in an attempt to
coerce the living into sin.
With such sentiments afoot, the belief in ghosts and spirits went
underground, and the occult was born.
Following the Restoration in 17th-century England, several
important collections of ghost stories were assembled, including one by Joseph
Glanvill (1636-1680), an Anglican minister and chaplain to Charles II, but the
stigma of the occult remained. The Enlightenment of the 18th century gave
further rise to skepticism and disbelief in ghosts. However, during the
Romantic era of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, society embraced the
emotional, and a spiritualistic movement began.
In 1848, two sisters in upstate New York began receiving messages
from the dead. The Fox sisters were proclaimed mediums, those who can
communicate with spirits on behalf of other living beings, and Spiritualism
came into existence.
During their heyday, Kate and Margaret Fox held seances for the
great and the near great, with Mary Todd Lincoln, William Cullen Bryant, James
Fenimore Cooper and Harriet Beecher Stowe among their clientele. The sisters
were soon accused of trickery, to which they confessed, and although they later
recanted their confessions, the Fox sisters never again achieved fame, with
both dying in poor circumstances. Spiritualism, however, remains active today,
especially in the British Isles.
As humanity's beliefs about science and religion have changed, so,
too, have their beliefs about the soul, the possibility of survival after
death, the existence of ghosts and the ability to communicate with the dead.
Today, many of the old prejudices remain ingrained in our minds, but we are
fortunate to live in a time when we are allowed to think freely about such
issues.
*****
A note about this article: I first wrote this piece late in 2000 and posted it on the web about 2001. Since then it has been "borrowed" extensively, without proper credit. It's flattering to have my work shared, but please do give me credit. Thank you.
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