Once they reached the other side and drank from the river Lethe of forgetfulness their souls became ghosts.
Once the ghosts entered Hades dark kingdom they faced three judges; Rhadamanthys, who judged the souls of the east, Aecus who judged the people of the West and finally Minos who passed judgement on all the difficult cases (murderers, criminals etc).
Like in today's society, the Greeks believed in a form of Heaven and Hell, but they also had a Limbo section in-between. It was thought there were three possible destinations where you could end up; For the very good they had the pleasure of inhabiting the beautiful Elysium Fields, a heavenly paradise of music, fun and games. In Elysium the sun always shone, fruit was forever ripe and sweet music played continuously.
On the other hand of the spectrum there was Tartarus, home of all the evil people. Tartarus was the land of eternal punishment and suffering where criminals and evil people were sent. This hideous place was guarded by three furies, they were revolting, withered old woman with snakes for hair, dog-like heads, bad wings and eyes that burned as bright as the fiery pits of hell. The furies carried torches, whips and metal swords, which they used to torture their guests. They could even visit earth on special occasions and punish the very bad people like child abusers.
For the neither very good, nor very bad there was a mid-way point called the Asphodel fields. This was a grey, dull place where ghosts wandered endlessly, twittering like bats with nothing to do.
The Greeks strongly believed that they way you behaved on earth determined your destination, much like we do in western culture, however there was no forgiveness, every day you spent on earth was preparing you for the after-life, the dead were regarded as more important than the living! This may seem ludicrous to us today but the Greeks didn't have a great life expectancy and they believed they had to prepare themselves for eternity.
