This page cannot be viewed in frames

Go to page

If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.

“Let him sleep in peace…” or about ancient belief about similarity of sleep to death

This post is also available in: Polish (polski)

Waterhouse sleep and his half brother death 1874
John William Waterhouse, Sleep and His Half-brother Death

Many people visiting the graves of their loved ones have come across tombstones informing that the deceased “slept forever” or “sleeping in the Lord” – few know that these phrases come directly from the world of ancient Romans and Greeks.

From Homer (Hom. Il. XIV 231-2321; XVI 672-3) and Hesiod (Hes. Th. 756-662) sleep and death were linked: twin brothers were supposed to come from the goddess of Night, and every mortal fell under their power. Sleep was gentle, comforting people after a day’s work, and its deadly brother was relentless and fearful. They were united by the similarity of the state to which a person touched by their power fell. Sleep excluded people from life for the duration of the night – in the event of death, this night would never end. The similarity of both brothers resulted in the popularity of the motif3, as well as many accurate formulations, one of the most interesting of which was Aristotle. For he stated that sleep is an intermediate state between life and death, in which, due to the lack of perception, being – although still alive – is similar to the dead (Arist. Gen. An. 778 b4).

The vivid notion of the similarity of sleep to death flourished in the Roman world after the era of Octavian Augustus5, permanently inscribing itself in the landscape of Roman necropolises, providing thousands of tombstone inscriptions on which mourning families contained information about eternal sleep your loved ones. This would not have happened if not for Lucretius, who tried in his work (On Reality, a work on the nature of the world) to familiarize readers with death. He did this by presenting it as a dream-like state (De rerum natura, III 909-910, III 9216). Horace also wrote about sleep as perpetual lethargy (O d. I 24. 5-6 – perpetuis sopor7), or long sleep (O d. III 11. 38-39 – longus somnus). Even Homeric imitator Virgil did not fail to describe death as a deep sleep (Verg. Aen. VI 5228). It was the great poets of the breakthrough period who provided the ordinary inhabitants of the Empire with poems that they could use to get used to the tragedy of the death of a loved one, due to the gentle tone of expressing death in poetry.

The belief in the relationship between sleep and death would not have survived if not for the reinterpretation of this motif in the spirit of the new religion – Christianity. Writers of late antiquity who believed in Christ believed that they would be resurrected at the time of Christ’s return (Parousia); until then, the dead await the Last Judgment. Waiting was identified with the sleeping of the dead, thanks to which the pagan religious idea found identification in the hope-giving message of the new religion.

The motif of a death-like dream is an understandable idea to this day, and its meaning has not changed after more than two thousand years: do not be afraid of death, because you experience it every day.

Author: Radosław Domazet (translated from Polish: Jakub Jasiński)
Footnotes
  1. Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes, Oxford 1920; przekł. pol.: Homer, Iliada, tł. K. Jeżewska, Wrocław 1972
  2. Hesiod, Theogony, ed. M. L. West, Oxford 1966; przekł. pol.: Hezjod, Teogonia, tł. J. Łanowski, Warszawa 1999
  3. Ch. Brown, Seeing Sleep: Heraclitus fr. 49 Marcovich (DK 22 B 21), “The American Journal of Philology”, Vol. CVII, No. 2, 1986, s. 245
  4. Aristotle, Generation of Animals, ed. and tr. A. L. Peck, London 1943 (tu przekład angielski)
  5. M. B. Ogle, The Sleep of Death, “Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome”, Vol. 11, 1933, s. 82
  6. T. Lucreti Cari, De Rerum Natura libri sex, recensuit J. Martin, Leipzig 1969; przekł. pol.: Lukrecjusz, O rzeczywistości, ksiąg sześć, tł. A. Krokiewicz, Warszawa 2003
  7. Horace, Odes and Epodes, eds. P. Shorey, G. J. Laing, Chicago 1919; przekł. polski: Horacy, Dzieła wszystkie, tł. A. Lam, Warszawa 2019
  8. P. Vergilius Maro Aeneis, recensuit G. B. Conte, Berlin 2009; przekł. pol.: Wergiliusz, Eneida, tł. Z. Kubiak, Warszawa 1998
Sources
  • Aristotle, Generation of Animals, ed. and tr. A. L. Peck, London 1943 (tu przekład angielski)
  • Hesiod, Theogony, ed. M. L. West, Oxford 1966; przekł. pol.: Hezjod, Teogonia, tł. J. Łanowski, Warszawa 1999
  • Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes, Oxford 1920; przekł. pol.: Homer, Iliada, tł. K. Jeżewska, Wrocław 1972
  • Horace, Odes and Epodes, eds. P. Shorey, G. J. Laing, Chicago 1919; przekł. polski: Horacy, Dzieła wszystkie, tł. A. Lam, Warszawa 2019
  • T. Lucreti Cari, De Rerum Natura libri sex, recensuit J. Martin, Leipzig 1969; przekł. pol.: Lukrecjusz, O rzeczywistości, ksiąg sześć, tł. A. Krokiewicz, Warszawa 2003
  • P. Vergilius Maro Aeneis, recensuit G. B. Conte, Berlin 2009; przekł. pol.: Wergiliusz, Eneida, tł. Z. Kubiak, Warszawa 1998
  • Brown Ch., Seeing Sleep: Heraclitus fr. 49 Marcovich (DK 22 B 21), “The American Journal of Philology”, Vol. CVII, No. 2, 1986, s. 243-5
  • Ogle M. B., The Sleep of Death, “Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome”, Vol. XI, 1933, s. 81-117

IMPERIUM ROMANUM needs your support!

If you like the content that I collect on the website and that I share on social media channels I will be grateful for the support. Even the smallest amounts will allow me to pay for further corrections, improvements on the site and pay the server.

Support IMPERIUM ROMANUM!

Support IMPERIUM ROMANUM!

Find out more!

Check your curiosity and learn something new about the ancient world of the Romans. By clicking on the link below, you will be redirected to a random entry.

Random curiosity

Random curiosity

Discover secrets of ancient Rome!

If you want to be up to date with newest articles on website and discoveries from the world of ancient Rome, subscribe to the newsletter, which is sent each Saturday.

Subscribe to newsletter!

Subscribe to newsletter

Spelling error report

The following text will be sent to our editors: