Hell
The derivation of this word is probably from the root helan to cover, designating a subterranean or hidden place. In Ward's Mythology we find it in the form of Hel as a 66 place of the dead" alone, by no means a place of punishment. The conception of such has a more or less clear train of evolution behind it. The Christian idea of a place of punishment was directly coloured by the Jewish conception of Sheol, which in turn took shape from Babylonian sources. When exactly the idea began to form itself as a place of punishment is not clear, as among the ancient Semites, Egyptians and Greeks, we find the under-world regarded as a place of the dead alone. Thus in Egypt we find Amenti distinctly a place of the dead, in which the tasks of life are for the most part duplicated. This is the case also among barbarian people, who merely regard the land of the dead as an extension of human existence, in which man led a more or less shadowy life. The savage does not believe in punishment after death, and conceives that any breach of moral rule is summarily dealt with in this life. It is only when a higher moral code emerges from totemic or similar rule that the idea of a place of punishment is invented by priest-craft. This is, however, not always the case: in Greece, Rome and Scandinavia, we find that Hades was merely looked upon as a place of the dead, where, like shadowy ghosts, mankind flit to and fro, gibbering and squeaking as phantoms are supposed to do. According to the Greeks, Hades was only some twelve feet under the surface of the ground, so that Orpheus would have had no very long journey from the subterranean spheres to reach earth once more. Hell is generally regarded as a sovereignty, a place definitely ruled in an ordinary manner by a monarch set there for the purpose by the celestial powers. Thus the Greek Hades ruled the Sad Sphere of the Dead; Osiris was lord and governor of the Egyptian Amenti; in Central America, we find twin rulers in the Kiche Hades, Xibalba, whose names are given as Hun-came and Vukub-came. These latter are actively malignant, unlike the Mictlan of the Mexican, whose empire was for the generality of the people. These could only exist there for the space of four years, after which they finally became entirely extinct. The Mexicans represent Mictlan as a huge monster with open mouth ready to devour his victims, and this we find paralelled in the Babylonian Tiawith. We thus see that at a certain stage in all mythologies, the conception of a place of the dead was confounded with the idea of a place of punishment. The Greeks generally bewailed the sad end of humanity which was condemned for ever to dwell in semi-darkness after death. The possibility of the existence of a place of reward never seemed to appeal to them. To the vivid Greek mind life was all in all, and it was left to the finer and altogether more upright Semitic conscience to evolve in the near East the conception of a place of punishment. Thus Sheol, from being regarded as a place of the dead became the home of fire, into which the wicked and unjust were thrust for their sins. This was certainly foreshadowed by Babylonian and Egyptian ideals, for we find the Egyptian unable to pass the test of justification simply rejected; from the idea of rejection would soon spring the idea of active punishment. The Semitic conception of Hell was probably re-inforced on the introduction of Christianity into Europe, and coloured by the conception of the places of the dead belonging to the other mythologies of Europe. Thus the Scandinavian idea, which was also that of our Saxon forefathers, undoubtedly coloured the English conception of the place of punishment. 66 6
Hela,' or Death,' in the prose Edda, is one of the offspring of Loki and the giantess Angurbodi; their other two being the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard serpent. The gods were not long ignorant that these monsters continued to be bred up in Jötunheim, and having had recourse to divination, became aware of all the evils they would have to suffer from them; their being sprung from such a mother was a bad presage, and from such a sire one still worse. All-father therefore deemed it advisable to send one of the gods to bring them to him. When they came he threw the serpent into that deep ocean by which the earth is engirdled. But the monster has grown to such an enormous size that, holding his tail in his mouth he encircles the whole earth. Hela' he cast into Niflheim, and gave her power over nine worlds (regions), into which she distributes those who are sent to her, that is to say, all who die through sickness or old age. Here she possesses a habitation protected by exceedingly high walls and stronglybarred gates. Her hall is called Elvidner; Hunger is her table; Starvation, her knife; Delay, her man; Slowness, her maid; Precipice, her threshold; Care, her bed; and Burning Anguish forms the hangings of her apartments. The one-half of her body is livid, the other half the colour of human flesh.' A description of Niflheim itself, the abode of Loki and his evil progeny, in given in the Voluspa. It is a dark abode far from the sun'; its gates are open to the cutting north'; 'its walls are formed of wreathed snakes, and their venom is ever falling like rain.' It is surrounded by the dark and poisonous streams 'Elivagar.' Nidhog, the great dragon, who dwells beneath the central root of Ygdrassil, torments and gnaws the dead."
The probabilities are that the ideas concerning the Celtic other-world had little to do in forming the British conception of Hell. The Brythonic "Annwyl" was certainly a subterranean locality, but it was by no means a place of punishment, being merely a microcosm of the world above, where folk hunted, ate and drank, as in early Britain. Nor was the Irish other-world much different and after crossing the waters of oblivion the possessed person found himself in a sphere in many ways resembling the earth-life.
In southern Europe again the idea of Hell appears to have been strongly coloured by both classical and Jewish conceptions. Our best picture of the mediæval conception of the place of punishment is undoubtedly the Inferno of Dante, who in most things followed the teaching of contemporary schoolmen in describing it. Acknowledging Virgil as his master, he follows him in many descriptions of Tartarus; but we find the Semitic idea cropping up every here and there, as in the beginning of one of the cantos, where, what looks suspiciously like a Hebrew incantation, is set down. The dramatis personae are classical; thus we have Pluto and many of the breed of Tartarus. In later mediæval times the ingenuity of the monkish mind came to the rescue and conceptions which in some instances appear to be perfectly original sprang up. Thus, Hell obtained an annexe, Purgatory. Its inhabitants took on a form which may distinctively be alluded to as European, in contradistinction to the more satyr-like shape of the earlier hierarchy of Hades. We find grizzly forms of bird-like shape, with exaggerated beaks and claws, and the animal forms and faces of later mediæval gargoyles give us a capital idea of what the denizens of Hades seemed like in the eyes of the superstition of the sixteenth and seventeenth Helmont centuries. It was only a modified version of these ideas which came down to our grandfathers, and one may suspect that such superstitions were not altogether disbelieved by our fathers. This is not the place to embark upon a theological discussion as to whether the Hell of the Christians exists, or does not exist; but it may be interesting to remark that a great controversy has raged ever since the time of Origen as to the question whether or not the punishments of Hell are eternal. Those who denied that this was so were called Universalists, and believed in the final redemption of all. Enough has been said to show that most Eastern mythological systems possess a Hades which does not differ in any fundamental respect from that of most barbarian races, except that it is perhaps rather more specialised and involved. Many later writers, such as Swedenborg, Boehme, Blake and others (not to forget Milton), have given us vivid pictures of the hierarchy and general condition of Hell. For the most part these are based on the patristic writings. In the Middle Ages endless controversy took place as to the nature and offices of the various inhabitants of the place of punishment (See Demonology), and the descriptions of later visionaries are practically mere repetitions of the conclusions then arrived. at.
The locality of Hell has also been a question of endless speculation; some believed it to be resident in the sun, giving as their reason for this the fact the Greek name of that luminary Helios; but such childish etymologies appear to have been in disfavour with most writers on the subject, and the grand popular idea that Hell is subterranean has had no real rival.