Hell Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==In literature== [[File:William Bouguereau - Dante and Virgile - Google Art Project.jpg|upright|thumb|''[[Dante]] and [[Virgil]] in Hell'' (1850) by [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]]. In this painting, the two are shown watching the condemned.]] In his ''[[Divine Comedy|Divina commedia]]'' (''Divine Comedy''), set in the year 1300, [[Dante|Dante Alighieri]] employed the concept of taking [[Virgil]] as his guide through Inferno (and then, in the second canticle, up the mountain of [[Purgatory|Purgatorio]]). Virgil himself is not condemned to hell proper in Dante's poem but is rather, as a virtuous pagan, confined to [[Limbo]] just at the edge of hell. The geography of hell is very elaborately laid out in this work, with nine concentric rings leading deeper into Earth, and deeper into the various punishments of hell, until, at the center of the world, Dante finds [[Satan]] himself trapped in the frozen lake of [[Cocytus]]. A small tunnel leads past Satan and out to the other side of the world, at the base of the Mount of Purgatory. [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' (1667) opens with the [[fallen angel]]s, including their leader [[Satan]], waking up in hell after having been defeated in the war in heaven and the action returns there at several points throughout the poem. Milton portrays hell as the abode of the demons, and the passive prison from which they plot their revenge upon heaven through the corruption of the human race. 19th-century French poet [[Arthur Rimbaud]] alluded to the concept as well in the title and themes of one of his major works, ''[[Une Saison en Enfer|A Season in Hell]]'' (1873). Rimbaud's poetry portrays his own suffering in a poetic form as well as other themes. [[File:019Visita al infierno.jpg|thumb|left|''Visit to hell'' by Mexican artist [[Mauricio García Vega]]]] Many of the great epics of European literature include episodes that occur in hell. In the Roman poet [[Virgil]]'s Latin epic, the ''[[Aeneid]]'', Aeneas descends into [[Hades|Dis]] (the underworld) to visit his father's spirit. The underworld is only vaguely described, with one unexplored path leading to the punishments of Tartarus, while the other leads through Erebus and the Elysian Fields. The idea of hell was highly influential to writers such as [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] who authored the 1944 play ''[[No Exit]]'' about the idea that "Hell is other people". Although not a religious man, Sartre was fascinated by his interpretation of a hellish state of suffering. [[C.S. Lewis]]'s ''[[The Great Divorce]]'' (1945) borrows its title from [[William Blake]]'s ''[[Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]'' (1793) and its inspiration from the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' as the narrator is likewise guided through hell and heaven. Hell is portrayed here as an endless, desolate twilight city upon which night is imperceptibly sinking. The night is actually the [[Apocalypse]], and it heralds the arrival of the demons after their judgment. Before the night comes, anyone can escape hell if they leave behind their former selves and accept Heaven's offer, and a journey to heaven reveals that hell is infinitely small; it is nothing more or less than what happens to a soul that turns away from God and into itself. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page