#ChthonicThursday: Asphodelus

The asphodelus is a perennial plant with tall, white clusters of flowers that resemble a pinecone, and Homer’s Odyssey indicates it as a plant connected to Hades and the afterlife. When the Romans thought the Greek vision of the afterlife was a tad too bleak and came up with something to convince people to die in battle for King and Country, they divided the afterlife between a place for the bad and a place for the good. Somehow, fields of asphodelii ended up being the place where you keep people who haven’t been neither good nor bad. A place for useless people, you might say.

Read more on today’s feature.