Dreams of the Underworld: Ancient Greeks and Romans and underground spaces, in conversation with Jasmine Elmer - Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery

‌Join author, TV, radio and podcast presenter, and Ancient Worlds expert Jasmine Elmer in conversation to discover what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought about the underground spaces with which they engaged. The relationships which ancient individuals had with these spaces were complex and fascinating.

On one hand this was a place of death, the location of the Underworld, home to mythical monsters living among volcanic and cavernous landscapes. A place to be feared, one could access it through earthly entrances such as caves, which became synonymous with wild living – as we see in the story of the Polyphemus in Homer’s Odyssey.

Simultaneously, on the other hand, underground was a place of enlightenment and wisdom, signifying ideas about society and the grasp of human knowledge. For Plato, the famous allegory of the cave was used to demonstrate our perceptions of reality. Also, some gods – perhaps most famously Zeus – were raised in caves, and illustrating their nature as havens of safety, shelter, and ritual.

Book tickets here https://rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/dreams-of-the-underworld-ancient-greeks-and-romans-and-underground-spaces-in-conversation-with-jasmine-elmer/

Image: Saturn devours his son – Francisco Goya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons