Imagine that you are dead. And where will your soul go now? It's up to you to decide. Choose one of the afterlife worlds created by the inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds, who lived in antiquity or the Middle Ages.
And we will tell you what kind of reception awaited the dead there (the spoiler is different and not always dependent on the sins and virtues of the deceased).
Place of my death - Ancient Egypt
You shouldn't have been a good choice. In the realm of the dead, Duat, the deceased is in for a lot of dangers, so do not forget to take with you a strong papyrus with the "Book of the Dead". Of course, if you were a pharaoh, that is, the embodiment of God on earth, then you will be fine in the afterlife.
The pharaohs joined the retinue of the sun god Ra and swam behind him in a boat along the heavenly Nile. But mere mortals had a harder time. First, the deceased had to get to the place where the god Osiris performed judgment. But on the way there, regardless of who the deceased was - a righteous or a sinner, various misfortunes awaited him.
For example, he could have been eaten by a "donkey eater", and the deceased could have fallen into the "lake of flame". At the same time, the deceased had several entities - a name, a shadow, several souls of varying degrees of corporeality, but even the ancient Egyptian texts are confused in their quantity and meanings. Therefore, such details are often missing in them.
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So that the deceased could avoid trouble, the priests provided them with texts with maps and instructions telling how to get to the place of judgment, as well as where and when to pronounce the necessary spells and names.
At first, the texts were written on the walls of the sarcophagi, but, apparently, it was not very convenient for the dead to read them on the way, so later the "Book of the Dead" appeared, written on papyrus. When the deceased reached his destination, he was greeted by the gods - participants in the Aftermath Judgment.
At first, he listed 42 crimes and swore that he was not guilty of any of them. Then the gods-witnesses and the soul of the deceased spoke, who told about his good and bad deeds, and after that the heart of the deceased was weighed on the Scales of Truth.
If the arrow of the scales deviated, the deceased was considered a sinner and his heart was eaten by the goddess Ammat - a monster with the body of a hippopotamus, the mouth of a crocodile, the mane and paws of a lion. Over time, in the ancient Egyptian kingdom of the dead, they began to punish more sophisticatedly: sinners were deprived of warmth, light and the ability to communicate with the gods.
If the deceased was justified, he went to the Egyptian version of paradise - to Fields Iala (Kamysha). Here he led about the same life as on earth, but he knew no lack of anything. The gods provided him with food, and servants worked for him, the figures of which were prudently placed in his tomb.
It remains to add that neither the sinners nor the righteous had the opportunity to leave the Duat. According to the idea of the ancient Egyptians, the souls of the deceased remained in the kingdom of the dead forever.
The place of my death - Ancient Mesopotamia
Well, not bad. We just want to warn you right away: if you are not God, you will not get to heaven. So far, only two people have been awarded this honor - the Mesopotamian version of Noah (the Sumerians called him Ziusudra, the Assyrians - Utnapishtim) and his wife.
In all other cases, the soul of the deceased, be it a righteous or a sinner, went to the underworld, Kur (Kigal or Eden). Another thing is that it was not always bad there, in any case torture and special suffering of the souls of the dead did not await.
The dead were not sent to the afterlife with empty hands. Many useful things were put into the burials: weapons, jewelry, tools, clothes and shoes, caskets with food and drink, as well as a goblet that the deceased kept to their mouths. Apparently, the drink in the cups helped to overcome the path to the trial. In the underworld itself, the richer dead moved on a stretcher, sled, or even four-wheeled carts.
To get into the realm of the dead, one had to cross the river, "absorbing people", with the help of a carrier - "boat man". For this, boat models were often placed in the graves. On the other side of the river, the deceased had to go through seven gates and in the end came to the judgment of the ruler (and later the ruler) of the underworld.
At the trial, sinners were sentenced to death, and they died finally. Much more fortunate were those who died in battle, who had sons left on earth, and who were cared for by their relatives, performing funeral rites. Those who died in battle were comforted by their parents and wife; those who had sons were fed and watered in the afterlife, and some were even allowed into the palace to the gods.
If the deceased did not distinguish himself in anything special, and even his relatives did not take care of him, then he had to vegetate in the underworld and eat leftovers. It was impossible for mere mortals to get out of the underworld. This was possible only for the gods, who inadvertently got there, and then only "through barter" - they had to leave a substitute instead.
The place of my death - Ancient India
Yes, Hindus also have their afterlife kingdom, and if you, for example, an astrologer, swatted a mosquito or if you have no son, then it is better not to get there, they will torture you with torture. Yes, and the righteous there awaited, in the eyes of a modern person, a rather dubious reward. So the choice, frankly, is not very good.
Not all the dead in Hinduism are immediately sent back to the world of the living for a new rebirth. First, they go to the underworld, Naraku, where they appear before the ruler of this world, the god of death Yama. Depending on the verdict, the souls of the deceased can go to heaven or hell for a while, and only then be born again.
They get to the place of trial for a long time, a whole year. First, the soul of the deceased moves through the surrounding underworld of the Ganges River, holding onto the tail of a cow, and then walks across the country with complex landscapes and many cities until it reaches the capital. There the soul finds itself in the Yama palace.
The scribe lists the merits and sins of the deceased, and Yama decides where to send him, to heaven or hell. Paradise, Svarga, is in heaven, and a limited group of people is taken there: fallen soldiers and especially virtuous people. In Paradise, the righteous drink in unlimited quantities the “drink of immortality,” soma.
Despite the fact that the recipe for catfish is lost, researchers believe that it was made from plants containing narcotic substances, possibly from ephedra or red fly agaric. In the Hindu hell, Naraka, ruled by Yama, the ancients numbered as many as 28 "divisions." Each of them was intended to punish one sin or group of sins.
In hell, Yama sent not only the familiar set of murderers, poisoners and seducers, but also those who committed lesser sins, such as astrologers, fortune-tellers, brahmins who sold meat and alcohol, and even those who harmed insects.
It was bad for those who did not leave male descendants. Despite the fact that such people were usually ascetics and led a righteous life, after death they and their ancestors were doomed to torment.
Place of my death - Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome
It doesn't matter if you choose Greece or Rome. The Romans "naturalized" the ancient Greek pantheon, changing the names of the gods, but preserved the topography of the underworld. Your choice is good if you find yourself in a local paradise - the Champs Elysees. But most of the shadows of the dead had to wander aimlessly around the underworld forever.
On the other hand, the dead were rarely punished here and only for very serious offenses. The shadow of the deceased to the kingdom of Hades or simply to Hades (named after the god who ruled here) is accompanied by the god Hermes. He brings her to the border of the world of the living and the dead - the river Styx (according to another version, Acheron). Through it, the dead are transported by the god Charon, specially placed here.
It transports not for free, but for a small coin, which is put under the tongue of the deceased during the funeral. In ancient Greece, it was possible to buy about a liter of cheap wine with it (if translated into modern Russian prices - something about 150 rubles).
One of the entrances to the underworld is guarded by Cerberus, a three-headed dog with a snake's tail. Unlike Charon, he has other tasks - not to let the living into the underworld and not to release the shadows of the dead from it. After the shadow fell into the world of the dead, she went through the endless asphodel fields to the judgment, which was administered by three demigods - the sons of Zeus from mortal women.
The righteous and especially honored persons (for example, mortal relatives of the gods) were sent to the Champs Elysees. Despite the fact that they were underground, the sun always shone here, and their inhabitants spent time in feasts, entertainment and sports. Moreover, they could be repeatedly born on earth in the body of a person or an animal, of their choice.
If a person during his lifetime did not differ in good or bad deeds, his soul was sent back to the asphodel fields, where it first drank from Lethe's “river of oblivion” and lost its memory, and then wandered aimlessly through them until the end of time.
The only joy for the shadows was the sacrifices of the living. Then they could drink sacrificial blood and for some time remember the earthly world. Sinners were destined for Tartarus, an abyss located even lower than the underworld. Various punishments awaited them there: for example, Sisyphus endlessly tried to roll a stone to the top of the mountain, and the Danaids were doomed to fill a bottomless barrel with water.
By the way, from the ancient Greek name for the underworld "Hades" comes the Russian word "hell". And the English "hell" comes from the name of the Scandinavian hell and the goddess who ruled it - "Hel". But that's another story.
Place of my death - Ancient Scandinavia
Not a bad choice if you are a warrior who died in battle (death from old age or from illness does not count). Then you will go to the local paradise - Valhalla or Folkwang. The rest of the inhabitants of the underworld lived rather sadly, but they were not tortured by torture either. In Valhalla, the supreme god Odin (in Folkwang, the goddess of fertility and love Freya) gathers a squad of valiant warriors who will fight in the last battle of the gods with the dead and hellish monsters.
Therefore, in addition to revels with abundant libations, the locals regularly arrange training battles, during which they chop each other into pieces, but then they all come together again for a friendly feast. The rest of the dead go to the underworld, Hel (or Helheim - "the land of Hel"), located, according to some sources, in the west, where the sun set, and according to others - in the north, in the country of eternal cold.
The eponymous giantess goddess ruled there - a person of unpleasant appearance. It was half blue, half the color of meat. Despite her intimidating appearance, Hel seemed to be a hospitable hostess. When the god Balder, who was killed by a misunderstanding, fell into her kingdom, she gave him a generous welcome - she made him sit in a place of honor in her chambers, ordered to cook honey for him and sprinkle the floor with gold.
However, she did not let him go back. In general, little is known about the structure of the underworld of the ancient Scandinavians. It was a foggy, gloomy place, separated from the world of the living by the river Gyoll, "noisy". The entrance to it was guarded by the four-eyed dog Garm and the giantess Modgud, who did not release the dead back to the ground. Hel was also surrounded by a high wall, and inside there were large villages.
Apparently, the deceased lived there quite well, in any case, nothing is known about the mass torture or torture. Although sinners (in this case, murderers, perjurers and seducers of other people's wives) had a hard time. Their bodies were gnawed by a dragon specially assigned for this.
According to the Scandinavian sagas, the inhabitants of Hel and Valhalla will not remain there forever, but only until the onset of Ragnarok - the death of the gods. Then there will be a battle between the squads who came from paradise and the light gods, with the dark forces and the dead from Hel, who will be brought by a ship made of their nails, Naglfar.
All will die, only a couple of people, a man and a woman, Livtrasir and Liv, and a few gods will survive. They have to create a new world.
The place of my death - the Aztec Empire
Great choice. Here, unlike most other worlds beyond the grave, they were not punished for sins (but, on the other hand, they were not rewarded for righteousness). The dead were sent to different levels of heaven (there were 13 in total) or hell (nine levels), in accordance only with by how they died. They were sent forever, there was no way to return to the world of the living.
For example, soldiers who fell in battle were sent to the east to accompany the sun. People sacrificed to the gods followed there. Women who died during childbirth were sent the other way - to the west, where they saw off the setting sun. A special fate awaited the drowned, killed by lightning and lepers.
They went straight to Tlalocan, the home of the rain god Tlaloca, where there was plenty of plant food and water. The rest, those who did not fall into any of the categories necessary to get to heaven, were destined for the underworld - Miktlan. Here the god of the dead, Miktlantecutli, ruled, who was depicted as a skeleton or with a skull instead of a head.
To get to the god, who was distributing souls into levels, the deceased had to pass all nine levels and overcome a lot of obstacles. He had to pass between the mountains that threatened to crush him, cross eight deserts and climb eight mountains, pass through a field in which the wind blew, throwing stones and obsidian knives at the deceased, cross a river of blood guarded by jaguars.
Four years later, the deceased traveled to Miktlantecutli, gave him gifts - masks, clothes and incense - and forever went to one of the levels of the underworld. When distributing according to them, the sins of the deceased were not taken into account, only how he died played a role.