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By
Ralph Monday
World Literature I
The typical
image of
Hell
a
smoldering
underground
world of
eternal flame
and
unending
torment.
Michelangelo's
vision of the
torments of
Hell.
Unrepentant
sinners are
punished here
for their crimes
in life.
A horrific
Satan rules
this underground
kingdom.
More beast than
human, he revels
in the torments
of the human soul.
He is the
Fallen One.
No longer able
to glory in
Gods light,
his purpose
is to rule over
human souls
in the pits of
Hell.
William
Blake
Tim Curry in
the movie
Legend (doesnt
look much like a
sweet
transvestite here,
does he?)
The common
Halloween
image of the
dread, dark
lord.
Indeed, the
Sumerian/Babylonian
conception is the
proper place to begin
an examination of this
horrid, yet fascinating
world that awaits
human beings after
death.
The
mysterious
place where
the sun settled
into the
Western
Sea was the
Underworld
for ancient
people.
When the
goddess is
trapped in the
Netherworld,
no procreation
can take place,
for she is the
symbol of all
ReCreation.
(pun intended)
Believe it or not,
he has parallels to
Christianity.
Nice hat
Osiris
(not Mylie Cyrus)
Like Jesus Christ, he was the sacrificed and resurrected
god.
His divine son Horus ruled the living.
Zoroastrianism
Named after Zoroaster, a Persian middle east prophet.
The Avesta, the sacred book of the religion was not
written down until the fifth century A.D.
Zoroastrianism had an ENORMOUS influence on
Christian thinking, especially in regard to the conception
of Hell.
Zoroastrianism
(continued)
Zoroaster taught a dualistic religion: the divine force of
good, Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), lives above with his
seven angels.
Ahriman (Evil Spirit), the Lord of Lies, dwells in the
darkness of Hell under the earth, and sends out his daevas
(devils) to torment the world.
Zoroastrianism
(continued)
Law, order, and light oppose darkness, filth, and death.
Their conflict is the history of the world, and the object
of the conflict is the soul of man.
(continued)
After death the soul
goes to the
Underworld where it
is judged.
Good deeds are
entered in a great
ledger as credits; bad
deeds as debts.
Zoroastrianism
(continued)
If negative, the soul
falls into hell.
If even, the soul passes
into a kind of limbo
where it will stay until
the Apocalypse.
Zoroastrianism
(continued)
A savior named
Soshyans, born of a
virgin impregnated
with the seed of
Zoroaster, will harrow
hell.
(continued)
The body will reunite
with the soul.
Hell will be destroyed,
burned clean by
molten metaland the
Kingdom of God on
earth will begin.
Classical Hades
For more than a
thousand years, until
the Western world
changed in the fifth
century A.D., the
ancient religions of
Greece and Rome had
many gods and
goddesses capable of
good or vindictive
behavior.
ORPHEUS
(dont get excited, this isnt Morpheus. This isnt The Matrix.
Another important
cult was based on
Orpheus the
Harper; he went to
the Underworld
down a passage of
the Taenarus Cave
to win back his
wife, Eurydice.
This cult lasted for
centuries and
influenced both the
Greek and Christian
religions.
Aeneas in the
Underworld
with the
prophetic
Sibyl.
SHEOL
This is the
cosmology of
the Old
Testament.
This universal
view is an
inheritance of
the
Babylonian/Su
merian cosmos.
Gehenna
today,
located
southwest
of
Jerusalem.
Pagan
sacrifices
were
reported to
have also
taken place
there.
GNOSTICISM
Gnostic Christianity held one of the stranger views of
Hell during late antiquity.
The ancient church effectively wiped out this radical
religious view until the discoveries of the Gnostic Gospels
in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt.
The most common Gnostic myth: an aeon or angel
named Sophia (wisdom) admired the High Unknown or
Alien God (a Platonic idea).
Sophia tried to imitate the self-sufficient asexual
creativity of the High God.
This delusion caused her to fall from the clear, light, and
pure upper heavens.
In agony and despair she brought forth a shapeless
abortion, the Demiurge, Lower God, the creator of the
Unhappy domain of
the Demiurge in order
to save human souls
By bringing them
gnosis or secret
knowledge.
This philosophy did
influence Christianity
in the idea of a fallen,
Corrupt, imperfect
world.
Hell was on earth.
MEDIEVAL HELL
The richest period in the
history of Hell is the
millennium that followed
the fall of Rome
A middle period between
the classical world and the
one born with the
Renaissance or rebirth of
the classical approach to
learning.
All the foundations of
Hell were already in place
when Rome fell, but the
Middle ages vastly
elaborated on the project.
Medieval theologians
continued to refine
doctrine made by the
church fathers
Except for one crucial
event: the formal
advancement of the
doctrine of Purgatory in
1253.
Thomas Aquinas, in
particular, followed
Augustine in insisting on a
real fiery Hell with
physical torments added to
those of the mind and
spirit.
Of course, Christ
Was the antithesis
Of Hell.
Baptism of
Christ.
From the medieval
Paintings of
The three Limbourg
Brothers (1416)the
Tres Riches Heures
(Book of Hours)
Made for the Duke
Of Berry.
Brueghel the
Elder
1569.
Limbourg
Brothers
Hell.
1416
Luca Signorelli
The Damned.
1441-1523.
Memling
Hell.
1485.