Depictions of the Afterlife

Heaven and Hell are ambiguous topics discussed and debated throughout all of human existence. Particularly, if there is a heaven or hell, and if so, what do they entail? Where are they? What do they look like? The 1990 film, Flatliners, explores one possible option for what happens to human essence after death. The film explores where this essence, whatever it may be, may go. It also explores what this place will look like for each of the different characters, as well as hints at the idea that deeds on earth may affect a person’s place, status, or experiences in the afterlife. Some of the ideas in the film related to some of the ideas brought about in the Bible, as well as some of the ideas and beliefs of the Essences that are discussed in the book Heaven: a history by Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang. The hint of redemption from sins in the movie is related to the Bible, but the individual experiences were similar to the beliefs of the Essenes for an individualized hope in the afterlife. Both the Bible and the Essenes expressed a setting for the afterlife that is portrayed in the film.

Since ancient civilizations people have been trying to explain what goes on after death. Throughout history, many cultures have had different theories about what happens. Two distinguished ideas of where people go after death are the underworld and Hell. The idea of the underworld came from the Greeks and Romans. A few famous works by the Greeks and Romans that talk about the underworld are The Iliad, The Aeneid, and, The Odyssey. A famous work that discusses Hell is Dante's Inferno. Hell is an accepted part of the Christianity religion and taught all over the world. The two beliefs are very similar but some distinct differences can be seen.

There are many similarities between Dante’s The Inferno and Virgil’s The Aeneid, be it their characterizations or descriptive imagery, but foremost in their ideas of what the afterlife consisted of. Each each epic hero in the works here have descended in to the depths of hell, with The Inferno depicting Dante’s descent into the depths of hell and with Virgil in Book VI of The Aeneid depicting Aeneas’s decent into hell. It can be argued that although different, the knowledge acquired by each character’s descent was equally important to accomplishing their greater tasks at the ends of their journey. Had their descent into hell been skipped their outcomes would have concluded in a different way because their voyages to Hell each played a crucial role in the advancing each narrative.

The underworld in Greek mythology was not a lively place, for it was where all the dead souls went. When a person died, the soul would be sent to Hades, a more formal name for the underworld. "The dead would go to Hades because there was no annihilation in the Greek mythology. The dead are dead because they have a flavorless and unhappy existence".

Virgil’s soul is stuck in limbo so he knows about Hell, the Aeneid is written about the underworld, and he is Dante’s model as a poet.

The Celts believed that the soul lived on after death. The concept of Elysium is found in a series of Irish tales where the gods inhabited an underworld within the hills or on an island obscured by mist.

In today’s world you never know what to believe. Because of this, many people wonder what is and isn’t true, making everyone skeptical about the world. Whether it is something that could drastically change your outlook on life, or change what you eat for dinner, what we hear about in the media is never 100 percent accurate and believable. For example, one thing that we can never be sure of is what happens to us when we pass on into the afterlife. The Underworld is portrayed in many different ways in the popular media and in the world in general. Whether the Underworld is a place full of torture and pain or a place of life and prophecy, the fact still remains that you being sent there is an avoidable fate.

Billy Collins is considered one of the most popular poets in America. He is an accomplished writer; he has twenty-two poetry books published and was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. In Collins’s 1991 poetry collection Questions about Angels, the poem “The Afterlife” describes the fantasies people have towards the afterlife that many have when alive. It addresses a variety of beliefs people have towards the afterlife: belief in reincarnation, those who find themselves “in a big air-conditioned room full of food and chorus girls,” and more (line 17). Collins uses imagery in the poem to reach and speak to the readers of the poem. The afterlife is considered a touchy subject in most societies conversely, Collins deflates the unease with his satirical yet harmless nevertheless ending the poem in a serious, melancholic tone.

People are always questioning whether Hell and Heaven are real or not. The thought of an afterlife is something every human thinks about. In Core 3 we read many books, one being Virgil’s The Aeneid, and another being Homer’s The Odyssey. Both books have to do with men attempting to complete a journey. Both books involve the Trojan War and journeys across roaring seas. During each book, the men enter the afterlife with a guide to help them through Hell, and each author gives their own thoughts depicting how it might appear. This year in Core 4 we read Dante’s Inferno, a book about Dante going to the afterlife guided by Virgil, a Roman poet. The authors all have some similarities in their interpretations of Hell. However, there are

In the ancient Hebrew writings, the concept of heaven and hell is limited to an underworld development. After burial, it was believed that the souls of the dead would descent into the lower parts of the earth. This underworld or Sheol was a place where people would “dwell as weak, dim shades with no consolation from God.” The book of Psalms considers Sheol as the Pit, where there is no help and the soul is remembered no more (Ps. 88:3-5).

“They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, couldn't bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn't even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldn't bear not to.” (Green) The Divine Comedy is a text that is divided into three parts, the most famous of which being Inferno. Inferno follows Dante through his epic journey through the nine circles of hell in his attempt to achieve a higher understanding of the afterlife. Dante is a man that seems to have, both physically and metaphorically wandered into a very dark place. He has begun to sin without

In the first place, Christians of the new and old age primarily believe that after death their souls live on in the grace of God's presence. For example, in the Bible it states, “Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies.”’ In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is shunned by God’s grace and is trying to find his way back. In the concluding lines of inferno; “...and beauteous shining of the Heavenly cars. And we walked out once more beneath the Stars” (Alighieri 287). These last words represent Dante climbing out of the nightmare he called Hell and he is gazing upon the beautiful stars of Heaven. Which represents a sense of hope as if his sins are forgiven. Heaven and hell in the Bible have a rather vague description of the details embedded in the experience you will face in the afterlife. All that is very well known and established is Heaven is a place of light and God's love and Hell is the land in which you experience eternal suffering for your sins. These loose interpretations of hell are greatly represented in Inferno because Dante takes these thoughts and roughly based Christian ideology of the after life into his own “Visions of Hell” Henceforth, the Christian faith and ideas are the base to many other religions. Dante’s Inferno a like Christianity has multiple representations of faith including an abundance of Christian Beliefs.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has never been satisfied with this one life. There is always the lurking mystery of what lies afterward; even with no scientific proof that there is anything awaiting those who die, humans cannot accept that death is the end. The rich mythology of ancient Greek and Roman culture includes many tales of a sprawling, often chaotic Underworld, with areas reserved for those who have greatly sinned and are deserving of punishment as well for those who have been blessed with paradise.

The egyptian underworld was a dangerous region that one’s spirit had to go through in order to reach afterlife. Throughout the underworld journey, the deceased’s spirit would have to contend with gods, strange creatures and gatekeepers to reach Osiris and the Hall of Final Judgment. There, they would implore their case for entry into the afterlife. The underworld is ruled by the god Osiris. He was believed to be the god of the dead, after being murdered by his own brother Seth and being revived again. For this reason he came to symbolise the hope for eternal life that every Egyptian held. The hall of judgement is the final destination after the trip through the underworld. To enter the afterlife, a soul must stand before the 42 define judges

There are three main opinions on the meaning of She’ol by approaching to the future life: underworld, grave, and Hell. Since, She’ol can be translated in both physical and spiritual future realm, both good men (Jacob, Gen. 37:35) and bad men (Korah, Dathan, Num. 16:30) go to She’ol, at the end of people’s lives. Today’s most common translation of the term is underworld. However, it contains a serious theological problem, because Mesopotamians believe that all