Concept in Definition ABC
Miscellanea / / November 13, 2021
By Florencia Ucha, in Sep. 2012
According to some religious beliefs the hell it is that place (symbolic) not at all pleasant to which the souls of sinful people go after death, and in which they will receive eternal torture as a consequence of the evil perpetrated during their earthly life.
Dark and cruel place to which some religions and mythologies believe that sinful souls go after their death
Traditionally, the various religious beliefs and even mythologies have spoken of hell, with various denominations, although, always agreeing on the characteristics of being the place to which people who did wrong a large part of their lives descend, and that they do not regretted it, because being the other side of the sky it is considered to be located in its antipodes, that is, in the depths of the land.
Thus, Christians point to hell as the place to which the souls of sinners who do not repent of their wickedness go, and in return they point to heaven as the place in which kind souls, and those who have not been, but have repented of their evil deeds, ascend after death, and meet God, the figure Y
authority maximum in him.The Underworld for Greek mythology was equivalent to hell and was ruled by the God Hades.
Both Greek and Roman mythology believed that all the dead, good and bad, after crossing the River Styx, went to Hades, an underground place, the entrance was Hell, and then good souls would be directed to the Elysian Fields, while criminals to Tartarus, the place where the monsters.
For its part, in Judaism it is designated as Gehenna, in pagan religions we know it as the Underworld, also, meanwhile, in the religion Catholic, more than a physical place, hell is considered as a state of suffering, what is directly opposed in Catholic doctrine with heaven, which is that place in which he resides God together with the angels and the saints and to which those kind souls will of course have access, as we have already pointed out.
With the particularities that each belief religious attributes to the subject, it should be noted, that most of these coincide in describing hell as a place dark, gloomy, full of mist, fire, tears, that is under the earth, in clear contrast to the sky or paradise that It is located precisely in heaven, and in which the devil or satan and other demonic characters are in charge of torturing the population.
Used as a resource to deter the commission of sins
So, taking into account these considerations, it is that in a good part of the cultures and religious beliefs that we come from mentioned have used hell as a threat and deterrent, to get good behavior on the part of the followers of a religion, that is, because if they do not commit to it, and behave in an unexpected way, they will go straight to hell; On the other hand, if they follow the proposed postulates, they will be destined for heaven.
At the time medieval The idea of hell prevailed, a place where evil souls had fallen because they were not allowed to enter heaven or purgatory because of the capitals sins committed.
Especially for Christians and Jews, purgatory is a place where the souls of the deceased will be housed in a transitory until they are purified, paying the earthly debts they have, and once this act is consummated, they can enter paradise or Heaven, except from this stop those who have committed capital sins, in whose situation the direct destination is hell.
Place where discord predominates
On the other hand, in the languagecolloquial the word hell is also used but to refer to that place in which discord and mess between the people who inhabit it rules. Clearly this use has a connotation symbolic that comes from the original reference that we mentioned earlier.
It is a metaphorical use, for example, and very widespread to refer to the bad things that happen to us, or that happen somewhere.
Also, the word hell is a term often used in popular expressions such as: to hell with someone or something (we use it when something, or a person, makes us angry), go to hell (we use it to get rid of someone, or something when they are very annoying), send something or a person to hell (used to indicate rejection), go to hell (we use it to account when something goes wrong or not as we expected), the fifth hell (indicates that extremely remote place).
Themes in Hell