Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal, such as in some versions of Christianity and Islam, whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the Indian religions. Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven, paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld.
Other religions, which do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely describe an abode of the dead, the grave, a neutral place that is located under the surface of Earth. Such places are sometimes equated with the English word hell, though a more correct translation would be "underworld" or "world of the dead". The ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and Finnic religions include entrances to the underworld from the land of the living.
Etymology
The modern English word hell is derived from Old English hel, helle reaching into the Anglo-Saxon pagan period. The word has cognates in all branches of the Germanic languages, including Old Norse hel, Old Frisian helle, Old Saxon hellia, Old High German hella, and Gothic halja. All forms ultimately derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic feminine noun *xaljō or *haljō. In turn, the Proto-Germanic form derives from the o-grade form of the Proto-Indo-European root *kel-, *kol-: 'to cover, conceal, save'. Indo-European cognates include Latin cēlāre and early Irish ceilid. Upon the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples, extensions of the Proto-Germanic *xaljō were reinterpreted to denote the underworld in Christian mythology.Related early Germanic terms and concepts include Proto-Germanic *xalja-rūnō, a feminine compound noun, and *xalja-wītjan, a neutral compound noun. This form is reconstructed from the Latinized Gothic plural noun *haliurunnae, Old English helle-rúne, and Old High German helli-rūna 'magic'. The compound is composed of two elements: *xaljō and *rūnō, the Proto-Germanic precursor to Modern English rune. The second element in the Gothic haliurunnae may however instead be an agent noun from the verb rinnan, which would make its literal meaning "one who travels to the netherworld".
Proto–Germanic *xalja-wītjan is reconstructed from Old Norse hel-víti 'hell', Old English helle-wíte 'hell-torment, hell', Old Saxon helli-wīti 'hell', and the Middle High German feminine noun helle-wīze. The compound is a compound of *xaljō and *wītjan.
Origins
The idea of retribution for evil thoughts and evil deeds features almost universally in human cultural history. Accordingly, justice may be carried out post-mortem, whereby positing a place of punishment in the afterlife. As early as 1500 BCE, the Egyptians asserted that the dead will be judged and, if found guilty, punished and tortured for their crimes. One of the oldest detailed descriptions of hell, however, are probably found in the Kathāvatthu, one of the earliest Buddhist writings written around 250—100 BCE. It argues that hell is a state as the result of a bad action, connecting hell to the concept of the retribution for bad actions and compensation for good actions. Such concept of hell did not require the existence of a God and does not depend on deities.Within the context of Persian dualism, which posits the existence of the embodiment of good and evil, hell was considered to be the abode of the principle Devil called Angra Manyu. According to Mazdaist eschatology, the dead are not condemned to hell, but freely choose paradise or hell determined by their actions in life, which either corresponds to the values of God or the Devil. In the mythological narrative, hell is believed to be in the middle of the earth, a bridge spans over it, and the dead must pass over hell, but those who did evil in life will fall down. In hell, the souls are tormented by the inhabitants of hell; demons, and tortured according to their crimes and sins. However, their torment is not eternal, as eventually God would triumph over the Devil and his demons, destroy hell, restore cosmic order, and redeem the lost souls.
In the New Testament, part of the Christian sacred scripture, references to hell are sparse. The Septuagint understanding of Hades is similar to the Hebrew Sheol, a place for the dead to await resurrection. Gehenna, on the other hand, is portrayed differently, as containing "unquenchable fire" and "worms that never die" where body and soul can be destroyed. As evident from apocrypha, such as Ethiopic Book of Enoch, the idea of the underworld and hell begin to conflate: In the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, the apostate Jews will suffer in Gehenna and for the Rabbis, it was a temporal punishment for Jews, but eternal for the Gentiles. Closely after the composition of the New Testament, the idea arose that the Devil is also a prisoner to hell.
Punishment
Punishment in hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each sin committed, such as in Plato's Myth of Er or Dante's The Divine Comedy, but sometimes they are general, with condemned sinners relegated to one or more chamber of hell or to a level of suffering.In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, hell is often depicted as fiery, painful, and harsh, inflicting suffering on the guilty. Despite these common depictions of hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray hell as cold. Buddhistand particularly Tibetan Buddhistdescriptions of hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. Among Christian descriptions Dante's Inferno portrays the innermost circle of hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.
But cold also played a part in earlier Christian depictions of hell or purgatory, beginning with the Apocalypse of Paul, originally from the early third century; the "Vision of Dryhthelm" by the Venerable Bede from the seventh century; "St Patrick's Purgatory", "The Vision of Tundale" or "Visio Tnugdali", and the "Vision of the Monk of Eynsham", all from the twelfth century; and the "Vision of Thurkill" from the early thirteenth century.
Examples in different religions
Ancient Egypt
With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom, the "democratization of religion" offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability.At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they had led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Maat, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the heavenly reed fields. If found guilty the person was thrown to Ammit, the "devourer of the dead" and would be condemned to the lake of fire.
The person taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts.
Purification for those considered justified appears in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where humans experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits but there is no suggestion of eternal torture; the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology can lead to annihilation.
The Tale of Khaemwese describes the torment of a rich man, who lacked charity, when he dies and compares it to the blessed state of a poor man who has also died. Divine pardon at judgment always remained a central concern for the ancient Egyptians.
Modern understanding of Egyptian notions of hell relies on six ancient texts:
- The Book of Two Ways
- The Book of Amduat
- The Book of Gates
- The Book of the Dead
- The Book of the Earth
- ''The Book of Caverns''
Ancient Mesopotamia
The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing the dead to drink. Nonetheless, funerary evidence indicates that some people believed that the goddess Inanna, Ereshkigal's younger sister, had the power to award her devotees with special favors in the afterlife. During the Third Dynasty of Ur, it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried; those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well, but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly.
The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the Zagros mountains in the far east. It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass. The god Neti was the gatekeeper. Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe the galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its East Semitic name: Irkalla. During the Akkadian Period, Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal, the god of death. The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband.