According to most religious teachings, the souls of sinners after death fall into a special place, where they are doomed to suffer forever.
Hell is located underground. The word itself comes from the Greek Hades, which means the underworld. Since ancient times, people have been interested in how hell looks like, how it works. Some prophets and clairvoyants had the ability to see hell. Church fathers and writers tried to describe this terrible place in their writings.
Descriptions often vary, and no one has yet drawn up a single map of hell. There is, however, some data that no one doubts. A distinctive feature of hell is the presence of fire (fiery gehenna), sulfur and smoke, most writers point to an intolerable heat. Darkness, twilight - such words are used by writers and theologians to describe the situation in the underworld.
In hell, besides the souls of sinners, Satan dwells, in fact, he is the ruler of hell, this is his kingdom. The prince of darkness, who has gathered an army to fight against God, is surrounded by close angels who help rule the underworld. There are also many demons dwelling there.
To harm people, they go to earth.
God created hell, it was he who cast Satan and his minions there. This is what the Bible says.
One of the first Christian theologians and church leaders, Blessed Augustine, first tried to describe hell in the 5th century as follows: “Hell, otherwise called a lake of fire and brimstone, is real fire. He will burn and torture the bodies and souls of damned people and devils. And the fate of all will be the same fire."
In 1149 an unknown Irish monk described hell in The Vision of Tundal. The church fathers believe that the monk was chosen by God, and he was given a special grace to see hell during his lifetime. He described his real adventures on paper. The hero of the treatise, the knight Tundal, led an unrighteous life. His guardian angel showed the sinner the world where he will go if he does not correct his behavior.
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The first thing that Tundal saw was a huge plain dotted with smoking coals. There, demons roasted sinners on the grates. The plain was surrounded by hot mountains. There, demons tore at the flesh of pagans and heretics with sharp hooks.
In Hell, Tundal saw Acheron, a huge monster with flaming eyes. Tundal had to cross the river over a bridge several kilometers long and palm-wide. A river flowed under the bridge, where hungry monsters swam, expecting the knight to fall down and they will devour him. Fortunately, Tundal managed to cross the bridge. However, on the other side of the river, a huge bird with an iron beak was waiting for him. She did to the knight what she did to sinners. The bird devoured him and flew over hell, and then defecated him in the frozen lake. Tundal miraculously got out of the icy water.
According to the author of the treatise, Satan lives in the capital of hell, located at the bottom of a huge pit.
Tundal returned to the land, stopped carousing and debauchery, distributed his property to the poor and set off to wander. The pious knight spread the news of terrible retribution to those who would not turn away from the devil. Apparently, the monk who wrote the book about the knight did the same.
Perhaps the most famous description of hell is The Divine Comedy. According to Dante's version, Hell is a funnel-shaped hole ending in the center of the earth. The funnel was formed from the impact on the earth of Satan, who was cast out of heaven. Hell can be reached through a large gate. Just outside the gate is a huge plain, where the souls of those who have not sinned much, but have not done righteous deeds, are rushing about. They are chased by clouds of hornets. Acheron flows beyond the plain, surrounding hell. Having swum across it, Dante and his guide Virgil find themselves in the first circle of hell. All hell is divided into nine circles, in each circle an execution is performed on a special category of sinners. The inhabitants of the first circle, the souls of unbaptized babies and righteous pagans are delivered from torment.
In the second circle, those who have violated the commandment "Do not commit adultery" are tormented. Their souls are eternally carried by the wind. In the third circle there are gluttons, who are beaten by hail and rain. The three-headed dog Cerberus continuously bites their bodies, tearing off pieces of flesh. In the fourth circle, the stingy and wasteful are always dragging huge boulders, like Sisyphus.
In the fifth circle, the Styx River flows. On its banks in the swamp are angry and gloomy. The former tear each other apart, the latter cry forever.
Behind Styx begins the lower circles of hell, where the most terrible sinners live. There is the city of Dis, where demons rest after their dirty deeds on earth. The sixth circle is a wide plain dotted with burning graves. Heretics are eternally burning here. The Phlegeton River flows beyond the plain. Instead of water, boiling blood flows in it, in which the souls of rapists and murderers float. On the banks of Phlegeton, according to Dante, there is the Suicide Forest, where the souls of suicides turned into dwarf trees grow. Behind the forest lies the desert. Here, in the sand blazing with heat, the souls of those who committed crimes against nature suffer. The eighth circle is an amphitheater where the souls of deceivers and swindlers are tormented. Demons whip them and dip them in boiling tar. The exit from the eighth circle is located at the bottom of the amphitheater, it is guarded by forty-legged giants.
Below the amphitheater is Cocytus, the ninth circle of hell. Satan himself sits there. He was forever frozen into the frozen swampy river. Satan personally punishes the most terrible sinners, traitors, he eternally chews their bodies.
The English poet John Milton described hell in his poem Paradise Lost (1667). The author emphasizes that in hell there is no place for light, the beginning of the divine. “Visible darkness” reigns here. Milton lost his sight almost completely. He claimed that he saw the world described in Paradise Lost with his inner gaze. There is a fire burning there that does not give light. There are scorched plains and icy deserts, battered fa-houses. The capital of Hell Milton called Pandemonium. There are meetings of Satan with his entourage of angels.
Lucifer's associates help him rule the underworld. Just as angels are in God's service, the evil spirit surrounded itself with helpers, demons. Satan's right hand is an angel named Beelzebub. He was the first to support Satan in his rebellion against the Most High. Beelzebub commands witches and sorcerers and appears before them in the form of a fly. For this reason, he is called the Lord of the Flies. With the help of flies, Beelzebub sends epidemics to people.
The second most important assistant of Satan is Lephiathan. The Bible says about him as "a bending serpent, a monster of the sea." He has the appearance of a snake, dragon or a huge crocodile. It was with this monster that God fought at the beginning of time. Some theologians believed that the mouth of Leviathan was the entrance to hell. This is how El Greco portrayed the gate to the underworld in his famous painting "The Dream of Philip II". In Hell, Leviathan holds the position of Secretary of Naval Affairs.
The hippopotamus is the land-based counterpart of Lefiathan. It is huge. He is usually depicted as an elephant with a huge belly. The hippopotamus is responsible for the sin of gluttony, and in hell he runs the feasts.
The next angel serving the forces of evil is Asmodeus. He is the instigator of family troubles, lust. He is also responsible for human greed and gambling addiction. Before people, he appears astride a dragon with a sword.
Astaroth is the Minister of Finance in Hell, and in people this fallen angel awakens laziness. He is usually depicted riding a dragon with an ugly head and a viper in his hand.
Belial is a very powerful angel who protects liars and hypocrites.
Magazine: UFO Magazine, # 4 (815) - February 2015
Ivan Rybakov