We have not always been afraid of dying, although that of course depended on what we expected to come after death. In addition to a 'heaven', many cultures also had a kind of 'hell', and you didn't want to end up there. Fortunately, you yourself, or else your relatives, could do things that influenced your fate in the afterlife.
Valhalla and Helheim
Almost everyone knows the Valhalla of the Vikings. Valhalla was the realm of the god Odin, and was represented as a huge hall where there was constant celebration. There was meat, honey wine, and music. The prerequisite for entering Valhalla was that you had died a heroic, brave warrior's death. Odin's Valkyries sought out the most worthy of the slain warriors on the battlefield, and took them to Valhalla. You can imagine that this was a good motivation for the Vikings to bravely distinguish themselves in battle. Perhaps the success of the Vikings can also be partly explained by this attitude.
The warriors who were not chosen by the Valkyries fell under the care of the goddess Freya. The women too, for that matter, because Valhalla was only accessible to men. Freya took them to Fólkvangr, to her own palace, Sessrumnir. Not much is known about this place. According to passages in the Gylfaginning, love songs would be played continuously. This gives the impression that it was not a bad place to spend your afterlife.
Dying of disease or old age was the great nightmare of the Vikings. Then you ended up in Helheim (or 'Niflhel'), the domain of the goddess Hel. It was a place of suffering and dull misery. Cold, dark and foggy, with no way out. There are sources that claim that some nobles had themselves pierced with spears on their deathbeds in order to avoid this terrible fate (Steinsland, G. &Meulengracht Sørensen, P., 1998:Människor och makter i vikingarnas värld :91)
The underworld of the Egyptians
The rule of the Egyptians lasted so long that their perception of the afterlife also changed over the centuries. The most recent and also most well-known vision comes from the time of the New Kingdom (1550 BC-1090 BC) and is related to the discovery of the Books of the Dead.
Before the deceased was allowed to enter the realm of the dead, he or she had to appear before the judge Osiris and 42 other judges, to answer for his or her actions. The heart of the deceased was placed on a scale and weighed against the feather of Maat. If the heart was heavier than the feather, the deceased was found guilty. A monster - Ammit, also known as the Great Devourer - often waiting by the scales, would eat the deceased, and this would mean his second death. End of story. So the Egyptians knew no 'hell' as such, but the idea of a second death was oppressive enough that many Egyptians did everything they could to avoid this fate.
If the heart was not heavier than the feather, the deceased was found righteous and he could continue his journey to the afterlife (the Kherneter). ), as a kind of Osiris himself (i.e. "one who rises from the dead").
Now the weighing of the heart was not purely decisive. As with any court case, the deceased was allowed to plead his case himself, to convince the judges of his justice. To help the dead person with this, he was given texts and spells on papyrus (books of the dead) in his grave that would help him with his wording.
The Elysian Fields and the Tartaros
If Greeks gave up, they would have a one-way ticket to the underworld, the domain of the god Hades. But before the soul of the dead could undertake this journey, the next of kin had to ensure that the body had been properly disposed of. Hades only accepted dead in his realm that met the requirements of the funeral ritual. If these conditions were not met, the soul of the deceased was doomed to wander forever between the two worlds.
The death ritual of the Greeks consisted of a series of ritual acts performed over a period of nine days. It was actually quite similar to funeral rites that we still know today. The corpse was washed, oiled, dressed in nice clothes, and placed on a bier. A coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased, so that the deceased could pay the ferryman Charon on his journey to the afterlife. In the days that followed there was room for lamentation. The actual funeral took place on the third day. Between the third and the ninth day the house of the deceased was considered unclean. It was being cleaned, and for the visitors there was a pitcher with water outside with which they could cleanse themselves.
Provided the ritual was performed correctly, the soul of the dead was collected by Hermes, messenger of the gods. He escorted the dead to the underworld, which was guarded by the three-headed dog Kerberos. This allowed a deceased person to enter freely, but ensured that no one came out.
Once at the River Styx, the dead paid the ferryman Charon the coin for the crossing. On the other side of the Styx, three judges were waiting to judge the life of the deceased:Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus, all sons of Zeus. The Greek underworld also knew various places where the dead could be 'condemned' to, although the destination seemed a bit dependent on divine arbitrariness, and not susceptible to influence.