Understanding Hell

In many religions, Hell is a place of punishment after physical death.  Many religions consider the time spent in Hell as everlasting and endless.  In some religions Hell is a period between incarnations. Historically Hell is beneath the Earth’s surface and often there are entrances to Hell from the land of the living. The other places the afterlife are Heaven, Purgatory and Limbo.

Hell is sometimes viewed as being controlled by demons that torment those punished and sent to Hell. There is usually a God of death such as Hades, or in the Christian and Islamic faiths Satan or Lucifer.

Punishment in Hell is related to the sins committed during life. Hell is customarily fire and sulfur   painful, and full of suffering. Hell in a number of religions is considered to be made up of zones of hot and cold hells as in Buddhism.

The Styx  is a river in Greek mythology that was a border line between Earth and the Underworld The gods made  promises on the river Styx; Zeus swore to give Semele whatever she wanted and when her request lead to her death he still had to fulfill it.  The river Styx supposedly had miraculous powers; according to one Grecian myth, Achilles was as a child his mother bathed him in it and was invulnerable; however she neglected his heel; in the expression of Achilles heal means a place that is a weak point.  

The ferryman Charon was believed to carry the souls of the dead across the river Styx into the underworld.  In ancient times placing a coin in the mouth of the deceased, was believed to help pay the toll for the ferry to cross the Styx River which would lead into one of the entrances of Hell.

There are many stories trying to explain life after death and Hell is one of the major themes in not only life but death.  In the overwhelming accounts of beliefs and religions the death myth is an attempt to understand and explain the unknown and the death myth is one of them.

The fear of death and the belief of life after death are phenomena found in all cultures. Scientists interested in the questions of how the similarities and the differences in the views of death of different cultures are explained, and the common order of similarities and differences. Shedding light on the ancient beliefs of death and life can be carried over to our own beliefs of death and the afterlife.