Contents GREEK UNDERWORLD .............................................................................................. 1 TANTALUS .............................................................................................................. 7 NORSE AFTERLIFE ................................................................................................. 10 THE DEATH OF BALDER .......................................................................................... 11 RAGNAROK ........................................................................................................... 14 EGYPTIAN ............................................................................................................. 15 AFRICAN .............................................................................................................. 16 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ...................................................................................... 17 BUDDHIST (TIBETAN) ............................................................................................ 17 CELTIC ................................................................................................................. 18 DANTE’S INFERNO ................................................................................................. 19 CHRISTIAN ........................................................................................................... 21 GREEK UNDERWORLD Underworld, the kingdom of the dead, was the realm of Hades and his queen, Persephone. Hades was very disinclined to let his subjects leave and - with very few exceptions - the only creatures who were allowed to freely go in and out were the Erinyes, also known as the Furies. The Underworld is separated from the world above by five rivers: Acheron - the river of woe Cocytus - the river of lamentation Phlegethon - the river of fire Styx - the river of unbreakable oath by which the gods swear Lethe - the river of forgetfulness. According to the Iliad, written by the ancient poet Homer, the Underworld is located beneath the secret places of the earth; in the Odyssey (also written by Homer) the way down there lies over the edge of the world across Ocean. In later poems there are various entrances to it through caves and beside deep lakes. According to Homer the Underworld is a shadowy place where nothing is real, but rather a soul’s existence there is like a miserable dream. Later poets describe it more and more vividly and it becomes a place where the evil are punished and the good rewarded. Of all the poets, the Roman Virgil tells of the geography of the underworld in greatest detail. Hermes leads the souls down the path to the underworld, to where Acheron pours into Cocytus. There the ancient boatman, Charon, ferries the souls across. Charon only ferries those who can pay for his service, with the money placed on their lips during their funeral. Those who cannot pay are trapped between two worlds and must wait a hundred years before Charon ferries them for free. Once on the other bank the souls face Cerberus, a three-headed dog with snake and dragon heads for its tail. His job is to guard the gates to the underworld. Cerberus will allow all to go in, but none to leave. Upon its arrival, each soul is brought before three judges: Rhadamanthus, Minos and Aeacus who pass sentence and either send them to eternal torment in a part of the Underworld named after its master, Hades, or to a place of blessedness, the Elysian Fields, sometimes said to not even be located in the Underworld. Somewhere in the Underworld lies the great palace of Hades (Pluto). Other than saying that it is many-gated and crowded with guests, no writer describes it. Around it are wide wastes, wan and cold, and meadows of asphodel, presumably strange, pallid, ghostly flowers Excerpts from Carlos Parada's Genaeological Guide to Greek Mythology (Everything you always wanted to know about the Underworld): After death there is no annihilation in Greek Mythology. The dead are dead because they have a flavorless and unhappy existence in the Underworld. Those who are practically dead but exist and dwell in all happiness in the Isles of the Blest or Elysium, are called Immortals. So life and death are qualities of existence, not lack of it. Oceanus and Styx. Between the world of the living and that of the dead there are, it is said, great rivers and dread streams. First, greatest and outermost is Oceanus, which winds about the earth and the sea with nine rings, but is also a subterranean river. The river Styx (river of Hate), which is a primordial figure too (daughter of Oceanus), is a branch of Oceanus and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. So Styx, which flows out from a rock, is the tenth ring, though some say that Styx itself corrals the souls in the Underworld with nine rings. The Oath of the Gods. Styx, daughter of Oceanus, was the first to come to Olympus and, together with her children, supported the gods in their war against the TITANS. For this reason Zeus caused oaths to be sworn by the water of Styx. If any of the gods pours a libation of her water and is forsworn, he/she lies breathless for a year, never tastes Ambrosia and Nectar and lies down spiritless and voiceless. After spending thus one year in sickness he/she is cut off for nine years from the god's councils and feasts and cannot return until the tenth year. Such is the oath of Styx, which could be expressed thus: "Now let my witness be Earth, and the wide Heaven above, and the down-flowing waters of Styx, which is the greatest and most dread oath for the blessed gods, and your own sacred head, and our own bridal couch, by which I would never dare to forswear myself - that not by my will is Poseidon doing Hector and the Trojans harm and helping their enemies." [Hera to Zeus] Other Rivers. Styx is sometimes considered to be the river the souls must cross to enter the realm of the dead, though at other times it appears that the souls may cross the river Acheron (river of Woe), or embarking here in vessels and navigating its stream, come to the Acherusian Lake. Some say that it is in this lake that the ferryman Charon takes the two obols for the fare. According to some into Acheron flow Pyriphlegethon (river of Fire) and Cocytus (river of Wailing), which is a branch of the Styx. But others say that the river Acheron, turbid with mud, pours all its sand into the stream of Cocytus and the place where all these rivers meet is known as the Stygian marsh. Still others say that these rivers have no bottom or foundation and that they, coming in and out from Tartarus, oscillate and wave up and down from one side of the earth to the other. The river Acheron, which flows through various desert places, is said to come to the Acherusian Lake, where the souls of most of the dead remain, some for a longer time, some for a shorter, until they are reborn. The river Pyriphlegethon, which is a stream of lava rolling in its torrent clashing rocks, also builds a large lake boiling with water and mud. Pyriphlegethon comes to the edge of the Acherusian lake, but does not mingle with its water and neither does the Styx, which coming close to the Acherusian Lake, passes round in a circle and falls back into Tartarus under the name of Cocytus. Tartarus, Cosmic Place. Tartarus is the lowest abyss beneath the earth where all waters originate; all rivers flow into the chasm of Tartarus and flow out of it again. Tartarus is, they say, a gloomy place as far distant from earth as earth is from the sky. For, it is said, a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth. Still others say that Tartarus yawns deep under the shades, extending down twice as far as the view upward to Heaven. Tartarus and the Underworld are the realm of Erebus, which is pure Darkness. Tartarus, Place of Punishment. Tartarus is also a place of punishment. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple line all about it. Some say that the gates are of iron and the threshold of bronze, and others that there is a threefold wall around it. Around this triple wall flows Pyriphlegethon with its flames and its clashing rocks. The entrance, in which there is an enormous portal has pillars of solid adamant that not even the gods could break. At the top of its tower of Iron sits the Erinye Tisiphone 1, with her bloody robe, and sleepless day and night, guards the entrance. Tartarus, the Being. Tartarus is, at the same time, a being capable of intercourse. Tartarus is the father of such monsters as Echidna and Typhon [for the fight of Typhon against heaven see Zeus]. Erebus, the Darkness of the Underworld, possibly existing from the beginning together with Chaos, Nyx (Night) and Tartarus, gave birth, according to some, to the MOERAE, the HESPERIDES, Hypnos, Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death) and Styx. Arrival to Hades. As men and women die Hermes leads their souls to the Underworld, past the streams of Oceanus, past the White Rock (Leucas), past the Gates of the Sun and the Land of Dreams, until they reach the Asphodel Fields, where the spirits dwell living the flavourless existence of a shadow or phantom. This is not a place of punishment, but there is no pleasure and the mind is confused and oblivious (with the exception of Tiresias). In the Entrance. Before the entrance to Hades live Grief and Anxiety, along with Diseases and Old Age (Geras). Also Fear and Hunger and Death and Agony and Hypnos (Sleep), brother of Death, dwell in this place together with Guilty Joys. On an opposite threshold is War, the ERINYES and Eris (Discord). Close to the doors many other beasts dwell: CENTAURS, GORGONS, the Hydra from Lerna, the Chimera, the HARPIES, and others. In the midst of all this an Elm can be seen and False Dreams cling under every leaf. Charon. The dead seem to know the location of Hades less than the living, as several entrances to Hades were known from all times (one of them is in Taenarum, another in Cumae; Odysseus arrived to Hades navigating the stream of Oceanus).