What piece of art, music, literature or other art form helps you understand death? How does it help your conception? Do you see any connections with the ways the ancient people we talked about this week approached death? Why or why not?
Emily Dickinson, a well-known American poet, has written several poems on the subject of death including Death is a dialogue between, and We cover thee sweet face. These poems all contain messages that have helped me understand death, and how to feel about it. Death is a dialogue between distinguishes the difference between body and spirit. Although the body may be dead, the spirit can still live on, and does live on. In We cover thee sweet face, Dickinson expresses how it feels to lose someone, missing them even though they can't miss you, sending them love even though they can't send any love back. This helps my conception of the afterlife, and how, at death, the spirit separates from the body, and leaves just an empty shell for those who are still living to grieve over.
It is easy to connect the concept of teh spirit leaving the body to how ancient peoples approached death. In the Epic of Gilgamesh for example,Gilgamesh tries to preserve Enkidu's body long enough so that he may revive him, but unfortunately, Enkidu is gone indefinietly and although his body still remains, his spirit has left, and will not return.
The Ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, believed that death is still an existence, and because of that preservation of the body became very important, the reason for mummification. Contrary to what Emily Dickinson was saying in her poem, the body doesn't separate from the spirit, but is the only connection they have left with the person, and through the body they may communicate with the deceased's spirit.
