Mandate of Heaven

The ancient Greeks are known for having a rich and prominent culture. As part of their elaborate culture, they had many beliefs about death and the afterlife. The ancient Greeks had various death related encounters, beliefs, rituals and practices, and attitudes towards death for hundreds of years. When thinking of the ancient world, many think of relatively short lifespans; this is not true for the ancient Greeks. A recent study by Menelaos L. Batrinos, shows that ancient Greeks had a median…

The first thing that Gaiman does to use religion and mythologie as a premise for its story is with the use of realms. The Sandman takes planes of existence other than just our own, from many different religions and mythologies and uses it as the setting for almost all of the scenes. One of the biggest realms that are used in the story is Hell. Hell, which is part of the Christian belief, is not only a setting for the story, but it is also a key subject in the storyline. When lucifer decides to…

The Sinful Woods In Canto I, Dante is seen traversing through a forest. It is a scary and dark forest, but there was a hill in the distance with a glimmer of sunshine coming down from it. Dante started walking up the hill and met three beasts. The beasts consisted of a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf. The she-wolf spooked him the most and made him revert back to the darkness. The spirit of Virgil greets him when he returns. Virgil reassures him that they must pass through Hell before they can…

In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Jonathan Edwards states that a sinner without the help of God is pathetic and doomed for eternity. Edwards demonstrates this idea with the use of imagery, metaphors, and personification. Edwards conveys imagery by creating a scene in which the listener can feel the vulnerability through the speech. Edwards preaches, "Your wickedness makes you heavy as lead... if God should let you, you would immediately sink and plunge in the bottomless gulf... all…

Instead of a fiery portrayal as in the rest of the circles, the deepest stratum of hell is icy and frozen. In the Ninth Circle of Hell, the sinners are either murderers or traitors, and their punishment reflects their depravity. In Round 3 of the this Circle, the murderers/traitors of guests are encased in ice, all except for half their faces above the ice and their tears creating a frosty layer covering their eyes. These sinners are part of the frozen lake, Cocytus, because their act of…

As Christians believe in the afterlife, it is of the concept of heaven and hell, which in Hinduism is much different. When someone dies, you have the extreme of two option in Christianity. If you die without repenting of sin and following what the Bible says. In Christianity, hell is different as you must be an extreme sinner in the person’s former life and get torture and chastisement from demons. In the Hinduisms’ view of hell, you get the freedom after chastisement and take part in…

Afterlife is a concept seen differently by many religions and cultures, ranging from believing in Buddhism, where after death you come back into another body to believing in Christianity, where you come across judgement to see whether you get sent to Heaven or Hell. Nobody can confirm what happens in Afterlife, the only people who know are the ones who have died and they do not have a way to tell us. There have been many different cases of when people have allegedly experienced ‘the other side’…

Sisyphus is condemned to spend eternity in the underworld pushing a rock to the top of a mountain where it will roll back down so he must do it again. Camus states the reason that people see Sisyphus’ tale as tragic is because Sisyphus when he descends the hill, he is aware that he will do this task for eternity with no progress. Yet, the only reason that people respond with horror to Sisyphus’ trials is because they believe in hope. Camus argues that only if Sisyphus continues to hope is his…

debate about C.S. Lewis’s view of Narnia. James Russell claims that Narnia is Lewis’s version of an idyllic Christian nation (62). On the other hand, Michael Nelson claims that it is more than just a wishful thought and that it is Lewis’s version of heaven (236). C.S. Lewis masterfully tells a fictional children’s story while weaving in elements of his faith. Aslan’s divinity, sacrifice, and resurrection are clear similarities between him and Jesus Christ. Likewise, the White Witch’s evil and…

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” by Dante Alighieri. This shows a little into Dante’s thinking as he ranked moral failures through his structure of hell. In Dante’s Inferno there are nine different circle or levels of hell. In these circle there are different punishments for the different sins people commit throughout their life. The worst the sin is that you commit, the lower in hell you go and the worst your punishment…