{"product_id":"netherworld-9780099414667","title":"Netherworld","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe extraordinary discovery of the Underworld of the ancient Greeks.  We tend to think of ancient stories of visits to the Underworld by Odysseus  Orpheus and Aeneas as being poetic fictions  but Robert Temple shows here that in fact  the Ancients believed the Underworld to be a place that actually existed. It was maintained by a college of priests who would prepare  through ritual fasting  prayer  animal sacrifice  bathing and solitude  whoever wished to meet the shades of the dead. The candidate would then be led through the entrance to the Underworld  a dark  terrifying place  far underground  where after a series of ordeals and apparitions  they would finally meet with the ghosts of the dead. All these features recur in the ancient stories.  Recently Robert Temple heard that a 1962 archaeological expedition had actually discovered the entrance in Italy.This is the amazing story of what he found when he was finally allowed to make his own descent into the Underworld  the River Styx  false doors  a snake pit and carved invocations to the Goddess of the Underworld  all revealed for the first time since ancient times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651874218037,"sku":"ByrdShop_009941466X","price":553.81,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780099414667.jpg?v=1781843389","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/netherworld-9780099414667","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}