Here’s a sampling from their lighthearted look at hell.
In literary terms
Writers who have had hell on their minds for a long, long time:
2000 B.C.: The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Egyptian Book of the Dead
8th century B.C.: Homer’s The Odyssey
1st century B.C.: Virgil’s Aeneid
8th century A.D.: The Tibetan Book of the Dead
1310-20: Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, which begins with The Inferno
1590: Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
1667: John Milton’s Paradise Lost
1741: Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
1758: Emanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell
around 1790: William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
1902: George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell, act 3 of Man and Superman
1942: C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters
1945: C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce
1962: Mark Twain’s Letters From Earth (published posthumously)
By any other name
Kurnugia (Babylon): Both gods and humans visited what Crisafulli and Thompson call a “netherworldly VIP lounge”
Duat (Egypt): With seven gates and no real roads, tenants needed a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead just to get around
Jigoku (Japan): An “all-you-can-suffer hot-and-cold buffet” with eight fiery hells and eight icy ones
Helheim (Viking): An icy realm in the lowest part of the “house of mists,” ruled by the goddess of death, Hel
Kuzimu (Swahili): On Earth but not within walking distance; a bitterly cold place with seven different levels
Mictlan (Aztec): It took four “demon-plagued years” to get there, but a soul who made it could rest
Mitnal (Mayan): Lowest level of the underworld, ruled by a death god with the catchy name, Ah Puch.
What the hell does that mean? A glossary
Brimstone: Another name for sulfur, a chemical element that is abundant around hot springs and volcanoes, hot spots often associated with hell
Dis: The capital of hell, according to Dante; it’s in his sixth circle and is occupied mostly by heretics, who lay forever in fiery graves
Harrowing: As in “to pillage or plunder”; stories of Jesus harrowing hell are found in the apocryphal (non-Biblical) gospels of Bartholomew and Nicodemus
Heat: As in “how hot is hell?” The best scientific guess: 832 degrees F. Any hotter than that, brimstone vaporizes
Hell of a meal
Deviled eggs originated in Rome and were named, the authors say, “by18th-century foodies” for their hot spices or condiments.
Deviled ham. with its jaunty red-devil trademark. was created in 1868 by the sons of William Underwood.
Devil’s food cake was invented in 1902.
Isle say
Some fans of television’s “Gilligan’s Island” postulate that each castaway is guilty of one of the seven deadly sins:
Gilligan: gluttony
Skipper: anger
Mr. Howell: greed
Mrs. Howell: sloth
Ginger: lust
Mary Ann: envy
Professor: pride
Hellish postmarks
Hell, Norway
Hell, MI
Hell, Grand Cayman
Gates of hell
Rugged places dubbed “Hell’s Gate” by explorers are found near ...
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Gulf Savannah, Australia
- Rotorua, New Zealand
- Saba, Netherlands Antilles
- Death Valley, CA
- Lewiston, ID
- Vancouver, British Columbia
Devil’s aliases Satan is also known as Lucifer, Old Scratch, Old Nick, Black Jack, the Baker, the Stoker, the Tempter, the Beast, the Serpent, the Deceiver, the god of this World, the Father of All Lies and the Prince of Darkness.
Artists who couldn't leave hell enough alone
Michelangelo, The Last Judgment
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
Pieter (the Younger) Bruegel, The Harrowing of Hell
Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist who reportedly made a deal with the devil at the crossroads in about 1930
Friz Freleng, director of “Satan’s Waitin’” (1954), starring Sylvester and Tweety
Nancy Haught writes for The Oregonian in Portland.
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