Does anybody know what people believed went to Hades before the idea of having a soul separate from your body originated?
In my Personal Values class (a philosophy course), we're reading Plato's apology. My professor mentioned that Socrates was one of the few people of the time to believe in the soul, as having a separate identity from just the body. Yet people believed that something went to Hades, or the underworld, when they died. It couldn't be the body because they burned the body after death, and obviously it couldn't be the soul, because they didn't have the concept of a soul; and soul also means spirit, ghost, etc. So what was it that they believed went to the underworld?
Ahh good question, maybe it was the mind that went to the underworld. Unless you associate the mind with the spirit. Maybe it was the memory of your sins or everything you've done in your life, that went to the underworld. Like the underworld was actually a library, and held everyone's memory of life. Did the Greeks believe in reincarnation?
Wikipedia seems to disagree with you. But that by no means repudiates your question. I am fairly certain that the Homeric tradition (i.e. the idea of Hades and the afterlife) preceded most Greek philosophy. In that case, I don't think they gave much thought to the condition of the body in regards to the underworld. In other words, they might have believed in some sort of incorporeal spirit which represented (or, was) the person in the afterlife. I'm pretty sure that there was a concept of soul before Socrates, but the problem with our knowledge of the pre-Socratics is that all of our informantion on them is secondary sources. From people like Aristotle and Diogenes Laertius. Who believed in the soul. So you can see the problem: the middlemen through which we received our information a) had an agenda, and b) had ideas which they might have attached to their recovery of ancient philosophers' works. Anyway, from what I understand, the majority of the pre-Socratics believed in some sort of panentheistic deity/substance; much like Advaita Hinduism and the idea of Brahman. In all honesty, for me Aristotle's ideas about the soul are far more complete and interesting than any other ancient philosopher's. In answer to the post above me, yes and no. The mythology we all know (the Homeric tradition) is obviously mildly compatible with reincarnation--it does happen from time to time in a few myths-- but for the most part there is only the life and afterlife. However, a few of the Greeks believed in reincarnation: Plato's Myth of Er is probably the best example, but I will look to find more.