PARADISE AND THE PLACE OF PUNISHMENT
A place of reward and a place of punishment are ineradicably associated
with mythology. The idea that the human soul must betake itself to a
realm of brightness and bliss, where it will ever bask in the smile of
the gods it has adored upon earth, or be tormented by beings--still
god-like--in an atmosphere of suffering or torture, appears to be
common to most mythological systems of an advanced type. Thus Egyptian,
Indian, Babylonian, Hebrew, and Mexican mythology all possess a place
of bliss and a region of sorrow. In Greek, Roman, Scandinavian, and
Celtic myth, however, we have merely a Hades, an Otherworld, a place of
the dead. Would it be true to say that it is only among those peoples
in whom the moral standpoint is high that the places of reward and
punishment are conceived, instead of the mere place of the dead, the
abode of shadows? If so, the Aztec who delighted in human sacrifice
was upon a higher ethical level than the cultivated Greek. Again,
the myths of races of low civilization sometimes refer to a place of
reward, although more often their abode of the dead is merely a shadowy
extension of their mortal existence.
Let us examine the outstanding myths of civilized antiquity, then
their savage counterparts, ere we decide how far mankind owes its
conception of Heaven and Hell to ethical promptings. This is one of
the junctures where religious science is not to be distinguished from
the science of mythology, for both explain the origin of ideas dealing
with the next world, or attempt to place them in their proper sequence
of evolution. But it must be borne in mind that the science of myth is
not concerned with the purely religious aspect of the abode of the
dead, whatever form it takes, but with its 'geography,' scenery, and
supernatural inhabitants only. If it asks "How far have the myths of a
place of punishment and reward been affected by ethical promptings?"
it is merely for the sake of the myths, not for any concern with these
promptings.
THE TEUTONIC REALM OF WOE
The Teutonic peoples believed that the dead passed to the realm of Hel
(our 'Hell'), daughter of Loki. The word Hel appears to be derived from
a root which means 'to conceal' (old Teutonic 'Halja,' the Coverer-up
or Hider), and signified both the realm of the dead and the goddess
who presided over it. But it is probably a later development of the
myth, perhaps sophisticated by Christian influences, that makes Hel
a place of punishment. In Hel's later habitation we find "Hunger
her table, starvation her knife, delay and slowness her servants,
precipice her threshold, care her bed." The realm of this dark goddess,
the Proserpine of the North, was not originally associated with the
idea of punishment, but was pictured rather as a delectable region.
Thither fared Balder when slain, and on his arrival 'Eljudnir,' the
high hall of Hel, was bravely decorated, while foaming horns of mead
were prepared for his reception. In later days, when the conception
of Valhalla, the warriors' Paradise, was popularly accepted, Hel
became the residence after death of those who had not perished by
the sword, who had died a 'straw' death. The Teutonic defunct, then,
were divided in death according to the manner of their dying, as in
ancient Mexico, where dead warriors went to the palace of the sun-god
and those who died of dropsy or were struck by lightning betook them
to the luscious and fertile Paradise of Tlaloc the water-god, while
the common herd were swallowed pell-mell by the capacious death-cavern
of Mictlantecutli, lord of Mictlan or 'Hades.' The Teutonic goddess
Hel (or 'Hela' in its Latinized form) was, according to Meyer and
Mogk, more closely related to the demonic class of beings than to the
gods proper. This is sometimes the case with the infernal powers, and
examples occur where they are scarcely more than mere demons; but most
commonly the rulers of the Underworld rank as gods proper. Again, they
are often the deities of a subject, conquered, or outcast race. This
question will receive further treatment at the end of this chapter.
Hel, as has been said, was the child of Loki and the giantess
Angurboda; and a shadowy Teutonic All-Father (a 'god behind the gods,'
who recalls Mr Lang's Australian and Andaman original monotheistic
figures), fearful of the innate and abounding evil in her, cast her
into Niflheim and gave her power over the nine worlds of Helheim,
where she housed the dead. Hel was a place of gloom and dreariness,
but within it was a grove inhabited by sinless beings destined to
re-people the world. It is possible to discern in the myth of Hel as we
know it a later sophistication of the original, most probably due, as
we have said, to Christian influence. Early Teutonic ideas concerning
the dead were by no means well defined. We read of the souls of the
departed accompanying the Wild Huntsman (no other than Odin) on his
weird nightly chase. Other tales describe them as dwelling with Odin
in the hills, or, indeed, beneath them. This last is a very much more
widespread Teutonic tradition than is generally credited. Charlemagne
sleeps in the Odenberg, Frederick Barbarossa in the Kyffhäuser, and,
all unknown to the writer until the day before penning these words,
King Arthur was once thought to slumber beneath the lion-like mass of
Arthur's Seat on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
VALHALLA, THE WARRIORS' HEAVEN
Valhalla, the hall of Odin, where Teutonic warriors fallen in battle
dwelt ever with the god in feast and fray, was the warriors' Paradise,
and was built round the trunk of a tree Laeradhr. On its leaves browsed
the stag Eikthyrmir and the goat Heidbrun, from whose udders flowed
inexhaustible streams of mead to quench the thirst of the heroes. Its
portals were five hundred and forty in number, and were capable of
admitting eight hundred warriors at a time. Its roof was made of the
shields of the mighty dead, its leaves of their spear-shafts, and round
the walls glittered their swords and mail, while on the western wall
hung a stuffed wolf surmounted by an eagle. At some distance from the
hall was the forest Glasir, the trees of which bore golden foliage,
encircled by a sacred wall. The champions or 'Einherjar' went forth to
combat each other every day, returning to feast on boar and mead.
Now it is obvious that this myth is a comparatively late conception
created by a military aristocracy. A similar phenomenon is to be
observed, as has been said, in ancient Mexico, where the military
caste supplied the altars of the war-god with sacrificial victims,
and maintained the food-compact between the people and their deities.
As you will remember, if the gods perished for lack of sustenance
(human blood) they could not bless the harvests, and the people would
also die. The future reward of a valiant Mexican warrior was the
continuous company of the sun-god. Now we find that at one time human
sacrifice was rendered to Odin. Prisoners of war were sacrificed to
him, precisely as they were to the Mexican war-god Uitzilopochtli by
_stabbing_ (see Chadwick, _Cult of Othin_), and sometimes the 'blood
eagle' was carved on their backs. King Domalde of Sweden and a certain
King Olaf were sacrificed to Odin in order that he might be induced to
put an end to a famine. Thus early Scandinavia resembles Mexico. By
such instances does the science of comparative religion triumphantly
assert its value. Thus the myth of Valhalla appears to have had the
same genesis as the myth of the reception of dead Mexican warriors into
the sun-god's train.
THE OLYMPUS OF OLD EGYPT
But scanty information is to be gleaned concerning the abode of the
gods of Egypt. In the Pyramid texts of King Pepi I we read that the
whole universe was divided into three portions, Heaven, earth, and the
Underworld or 'Duat,' each with its own gods. Besides the gods, Heaven
contained other classes of beings, the Shesu-Heru or Shemsu-Heru, a
name which may, perhaps, be translated 'Followers of Horus.' They were
those who attended upon Horus, his satellites, and on occasion his
defenders, obviously followers of the sun, the hosts of the sun-god,
resembling in nature the 'pages' of the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, the
Knights of King Arthur of the Round Table (also perhaps the sun[1]),
or the dead warriors who caroused with Norse Odin in Valhalla. Indeed,
we find them assisting Horus in his war against the powers of darkness
exactly as the dead warriors help Odin. These powers are alluded to in
the texts of Pepi I as if they were of very considerable importance in
the Egyptian heavenly economy. Pepi placates them and they purify him
and recite the 'Chapter of those who rise up' on his behalf. Another
class of heavenly beings is the Ashemu, whose characteristics are
unknown. The Henmemet or Hamemet were either those who have been or
were to become human beings. A text of Hatshepset seems to ascribe
mortal attributes to them, as it employs the determinative signs which
stand for human beings, and a passage in a hymn to Amen-Ra edited by
Grépaut shows that the Egyptians believed them to live on grain. Of
other beings, the Set, the Afa, and the Utennu, we only know the name.
The souls of righteous men also dwelt In Heaven.
The Egyptian Heaven, so far as we can glean, realized the idea of
Paracelsus, 'as above, so below'; for it was the macrocosm of the
earth's microcosm, the greater world above, which was mirrored in the
earth below, one being the complement of the other. The denizens of
the Egyptian Olympus were the 'Great,' the 'Little,' and the other
companies of gods; the different classes of beings already alluded
to; and the souls of men, or their 'shadows,' 'doubles,' 'souls,'
'spirits,' 'powers,' 'hearts,' or 'spiritual bodies.' The denizens of
Heaven directed the course of the celestial bodies, overlooked the
affairs of mortals, and accompanied the greater gods in their progress
through the heavens. Constant prayers and hymns of praise arose to Ra,
the king and chief of Heaven. The gods were nourished on celestial food
which came from the Eye of Horus--that is, they subsisted upon the
beams of light which emanated from the sun. In a text of Pepi I we read
of a 'plant of life' which the gods subsisted on, and it apparently
grew near the great lake Sekhet-hetep, on the banks of which the gods
usually reclined. The just who abode with the gods were apparelled in
similar manner to them; but they also wore white linen garments, and
were shod with white sandals.
From the Pyramid texts of Unas we glean some further information
concerning the celestial sphere. It is called Aaru (perhaps 'the
Place of Reeds'), or, in another part of the text, Sekhet-Aaru, and
was divided into a number of districts, the names of which may be
translated 'the Field of Offerings,' 'the Field of Peace,' and 'the
Field of Grasshoppers.' It was watered by extensive lakes, where Ra
bathed and the dead purified themselves before beginning their heavenly
existence. Originally Aaru was thought to be located in the sky, but
there is evidence that it could be entered from certain places in
the Delta, called Pe-Tep and Tettu. The vignettes of Sekhet-Aaru in
the Theban recension of the _Book of the Dead_ indicate that it was
placed in the north of Egypt. It seems to have been composed of good
agricultural country bearing heavy crops, a pleasant and well-watered
land where the justified soul might rest from the labours of earth,
secure in an eternity of bucolic delights. This, be it noted, was the
Paradise of the cult of Osiris, a worship anciently connected with
the land and the tillers thereof. There is little or no ground for
its being confounded, as it certainly appears to have been confounded
at a later period, with the Heaven of Ra. The myth of the Paradise
of Ra, with its choirs of chanting spirits and its different classes
of supernatural beings, bears traces of ecclesiastical elaboration,
whereas the Paradise of the Osirian cult is the Otherworld of a race
purely agricultural--the cult of the peasant as opposed to that of the
dweller in towns.
THE DUAT
It was probably only in later times that the 'Duat' was regarded as
a place of punishment. Originally it seems to have been merely the
place through which the dead sun-god Ra passed, after his setting or
death each evening, on his journey to the east, where once again he
might rise. The Duat was peopled by the powers of night and darkness,
the natural enemies of the sun. At a later period these powers were
confounded with the damned--that is, they met with the fate generally
accorded to the deities of gloom and chaos at the hands of more distant
generations. There was no Hell proper for 'lost souls' in the Egyptian
religious economy; but a region existed at the end of the Duat where
infernal goddesses presided over pits of fire, slaying, beheading,
and dismembering the enemies of Ra, and burning the remains. Once
the god had quitted this region, however, the fires went out and his
enemies were granted a period of rest until he reappeared on the
following night. As these beings appeared in Egyptian pictorial art
with human forms, the idea gradually took shape that they represented
the souls of the damned. Dr Budge very shrewdly says: "The souls of the
damned could have done nothing to hinder the progress of Ra, and the
Egyptians never imagined that they did, but it is possible that in late
dynastic times certain schools of theological thought in Egypt, being
dissatisfied with and unconvinced of the accuracy of the theory of the
annihilation of the wicked, assigned to evil souls dwelling-places with
the personifications of the powers of nature already mentioned."[2] The
description of the Duat is hard to fit to any known mythic locality,
but it is usually employed in the texts as a name for a place of the
dead--a Hades, not a place of retribution.
ASSYRIA'S 'LAND OF NO RETURN'
The Hades of Assyria is a vast expanse of emptiness and gloom, from
which, as we learn from a mythological poem on the descent of Ishtar,
"there is no return." Mud and dust feed its population, darkness
is their heritage, it is a house with no exit. A keeper guards the
entrance and exacts homage to Allatu, the queen, from all who enter the
gate. A spell is then cast over the ill-fated new-comer and he is led
through seven successive gates and stripped of all earthly possessions.
In the end he is bereft even of the power of speech.
Allatu and her chiefs enjoy thrones of gold adorned with precious
stones, as though to mark emphatically the difference between
themselves and the culprits. Allatu may recompense or condemn,
according to the needs of the cases that come before her, and has the
power, for instance, to strike an offender with disease of the body, or
to consign him to prison.
The Assyrian Hades was separated from the land of the living by a river
of Death. It had no substance, shape, or atmosphere, but was filled
with chilling cold and melancholy gloom. It boasted a department of
judgment, like the Hebrew Sheol, which in later years became further
developed, and marks a most important variation in the evolution of the
idea of a place of punishment. The journey to this hall of judgment was
full of dangers and horrors of every description, through which the
deceased must pass.
The Babylonian Hades resembles the medieval Hell inasmuch as the
disembodied souls wander about in search of escape. Allatu, with her
divining rod, ruled her dominion with relentless power; and being the
goddess of death and barrenness, she lived in constant dread of Ea, the
god of wisdom, _who_ could alone cancel the spells of the Underworld
and cause men to live again.
The idea of personifying the stars and planets, so that besides
appearing in the sky they presided on the earth in living bodies, is
exemplified in the later Babylonian mythology. This astral system had
the outstanding feature that occurrences on earth closely corresponded
to the movements in Heaven. The gods and goddesses had seats assigned
to them in the heavens while their spirits pervaded the earth. Shamash
and Sin, the two greatest deities, represented the sun and moon, and
were followed by the other planetary gods. Anu became the greatest of
the gods and assumed supreme command of the heavens.
The Babylonians pictured a region in Hades for the reception of
righteous souls. Into this region those who after judgment appeared
to merit recompense gained admission. Under a peaceful silver sky
ancient prophets, crowned in triumph, sat amid pleasant fields. A
clear stream rippled past and quenched the thirst of the seers from
year's end to year's end. This was the water of life, belonging to
Ishtar, and endowing her with the power to return to earth. From this
region spirits passed into a firmament above, consisting of the earthly
sphere in addition to the heavenly. It had windows from which the rain
descended, and a flight of steps leading from the zenith to the earth.
THE HEBREW HELL
The Jewish place of punishment was Gehenna, where corporal as well
as spiritual torment was meted out to the wicked. In later Jewish
eschatology, it was the place of eternal punishment for the Gentile
races, apostate Jews being retained there in a description of purgatory
until, their sin atoned for, they could pass to Paradise. Sheol, on the
other hand, was perhaps a more purely Hebrew conception than Gehenna,
which probably had its origin in the old Accadian Gi-umuna. Sheol
is the common abode of just and unjust alike after death, and life
there was shadowy and unsubstantial as in the Greek Hades, It is well
described in Isaiah xiv, 9-11:
"Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it
stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it
hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
"All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as
we? art thou become like unto us?
"Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the
worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee."[3]
After the captivity, and consequently under Babylonian influences,
Sheol became a region principally devoted to punishment, with Gehenna
as the place of especial torment and abasement. The Talmud describes
this place of woe as follows: "Ordinary transgressors of Israel,
whose merits preponderate, though they descend into Hell, do not feel
the effects of the flames, and rise at once. Some who sin with their
bodies, such as those who put their neighbours to shame publicly and
who neglect the phylacteries, etc., are annihilated after twelve
months' endurance of hell-fire. Adulterers, though they sin with their
bodies, ascend to happiness at the end of the same period. Christians,
informers, and those who systematically despise the words of the
Rabbis are consigned to eternal punishment. Of course, all may escape
punishment altogether by repentance in this life."
No departmental god rules in this dreary realm, Sheol being directly
under the eye of Yahweh; for, according to Job xxvi, 6, Sheol and
destruction are naked before Him, and being omnipresent He is also in
Sheol. Sheol was silent as the grave, its inhabitants raising not a
murmur; neither in their grief could they work to praise God. It had
gates and bars, alluded to in the Song of Solomon as "jealous" and
"cruel as the grave."
The Talmud obviously borrows from Persian doctrine; or it might be
more correct to say that both conceptions spring from a common source.
In Psalms xxxvi, 8, and xlvi, 4, a river of life is alluded to which
makes glad the abode of the Elohim or gods. Says the anonymous author
of _Bible Folklore:_ In the discourse of Josephus to the Greeks on
Hades we find the opinions of the more liberal Pharisees clearly set
forth about the Christian era. He believes in a Hades of temporary
punishment, and an Elysium of light called Abraham's bosom. The Messiah
Logos (as at Alexandria) is, according to the Jewish historian, to
be the judge who will condemn the wicked to a lake of fire already
prepared, but as yet not used for torture, and will reward the
righteous in the heavenly kingdom. The wicked are to resume their old
bodies unchanged, but the righteous will obtain pure and immortal forms
fashioned from their old bodies which have been sowed in the ground.
The simile of the corn sown as seed, and springing up with a glorified
body, is used by Josephus as by St Paul, and it was evidently a widely
known parable, which occurs also in the Talmud, for Rabbi Meir is said
to have told Cleopatra that as a grain of wheat buried naked springs
forth with many clothes so will the righteous also....
"In the future happy age, says Josephus, after the judgment of the
wicked, there will be inhabitants of Heaven and of earth, but no more
birth, no wild animals, no storms, no darkness or change. Man will be
able to walk across the sea, and to ascend into Heaven; he will never
grow old or die, but continue to enjoy a material or semi-material
existence in his spiritual body....
"In the Mishnah the world to come is mentioned as the heritage of
'all Israel,' but the wicked, the Sadducee, the Epicurean, readers
of foreign books, and sorcerers, together with certain historic
personages, are excluded. Some of these are to be slain by plague in
the world to come, and some are to be scattered. Thus the doctrine
of immortality in the Mishnah is confined to the future resurrection
of pious Israelites. In Daniel also a partial resurrection only
is foretold to follow a judgment day. The Sibyl believes that the
righteous will live again on earth, but the wicked will remain in
Gehenna. The Book of Enoch is full of the same doctrine. A sealed
volume is to be opened in the last day, and the good will be selected
and become angels, but Azazel and his hosts will be judged, and cast
into a lake of fire. A great fire is also to burn up the present Heaven
and earth according to the Sibyl, and a new creation will emerge from
the ashes.
"Such, then, was the development of Jewish eschatology as compared with
that of Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. At first an 'eternal house' beneath
the earth is imagined to hold for ever the shades of good and evil
in appropriate habitations. Gradually the expectation of a return to
earthly life grows up, and the idea of spiritual and immortal bodies.
These are, however, reserved for the elect few, and the wicked are
condemned either to a second death or to eternal torment in their
former bodies in a Hell of flame, where, according to Isaiah, a fiery
worm gnaws upon them."
THE HELLENIC PLACE OF THE DEAD
The Greek place of punishment embraces three abstract regions, Hades,
Tartarus, and Elysium. Spirits leaving the earth entered 'the Unseen,'
passing, according to their worth, into one of these three abodes.
According to one writer, Oceanus, greatest of rivers, rolled between
the place of perfect happiness on its southern banks and the realms of
eternal darkness on its western, where fog and gloom encircled a place
of everlasting punishment. This stream had no mouth and no source, and
did not mingle with the sea which, according to Homer, it enclosed.
Earlier than this, Plato described a still more gloomy region. He
speaks of the plain of Lethe (situated near the two springs of Lethe
and Mnemosyne, which represented oblivion and memory), whose waters
give forgetfulness.
In the _Iliad_, again, the place of Oceanus is usurped by the Styx,
which wound its course seven times round the world of the dead.
Those who had been taught the divination of the mysteries of infernal
life could find guidance as to the future engraved on a gold plate in a
tomb in Petelia at the oracle of Trophonius; and this tomb came to be
regarded as one of the entrances to Hell.
The supreme sovereign of the infernal regions was Pluto, brother of
Zeus and Poseidon, and a willing accomplice in deposing Cronus, their
father, and sharing his kingdom. Pluto, spouse of Persephone, whom we
have mentioned before, ruled with merciless severity, striking terror
to the hearts of his subjects. He possessed a helmet which rendered him
invisible, and he was feared by the gods as well as by the dead. He was
assisted by a tribunal of judges, the chief being Æacus, son of Zeus
and Ægina (appointed to this trust in the Underworld because of his
just dealings with men in his kingdom above), Minos, and Rhadamanthus.
Elysium and Tartarus were two late offshoots of the region of Hades.
In the _Odyssey_, the souls who were utterly worthless fell into the
'deep bottomless pit' of Tartarus, while those who merited reward
passed into the pleasant land of Elysium. In the most ancient Greek
mythology, however, Hades was a region for all the dead, good and bad,
a land of shadow and dim suggestion.
THE ELYSIAN FIELDS
The Elysian fields appear in some descriptions as a fertile plain at
the utmost ends of the earth, washed by the waters of Oceanus, and
ruled over by the god Rhadamanthus, a fair-haired deity who exercises
a benevolent sway over his perfect kingdom. The balmy air, mingled
with the perfume of sweet-scented blossoms, is tempered by zephyrs and
whispering winds. It is never too hot nor too cold. Snow and storm have
no place in this delectable country. In Hesiod, in addition to this
description, Elysium is said to be ruled over by Cronus, the father
of Rhadamanthus, the latter sharing his sovereignty and administering
judgment. Heroes who never died, but were transferred from the realms
above without pain, were the principal subjects of Elysium.
A later theory describes Elysium as a part of the Underworld.
THE SLAVONIC PLACE OF THE DEAD
It is testified by Cosmos of Prague and other early writers that the
pagan Slavs believed in the continuance of life after death, and
naturally therefore in an abode of the dead; but it is probable that
this region was not a place of reward or punishment till the influence
of foreign ideas made it so. The abode of the dead was called by the
pre-Christian Slavs _peklo, raj_, or _nav_, which some authorities have
endeavoured to collate with the Greek _naus_, the Latin _navis_; and
colour is lent to this connexion by the ancient Slav custom of burying
their dead in boats, wherein the soul travelled to its abiding-place.
More probably, however, _nav_ is from the root _ny_ which expresses
the idea of death (thus _navi_, the dead, _unaviti_, to kill). The
historian Dlugosz identifies a god Nya, ruler of the Underworld and
the souls of the dead, with Pluto; and another possibility is that the
word _nav_ still lingers in the Little Russian _mavka_ or _navka_, a
species of elf or nymph, believed to be the spirit of an unbaptized
child.
It is most likely that the terms _raj_ and _peklo_ were formerly
synonymous with _nav_--that is, designated a Hades where life continued
much the same as on the earth; but in later times _raj_ came to signify
the Elysian fields, _peklo_ Tartarus. Both words occur prior to the
introduction of Christianity, although Christianity modified their use.
The derivation of _raj_ cannot be traced with any certainty. It appears
elsewhere as _vuirei,_ said to be connected with the Elysian _vireta_
of Virgil. It is generally pictured as an island far out in the sea, a
place of eternal sunshine and happiness, where dwell the souls not only
of the dead, but of those who have not yet been born. Here also are the
birds that in autumn take flight from the earth-world, and the seeds
of the flowers that have perished; types of all things that vanish
from the earth in winter are here preserved, to be restored to the
waiting world in spring-time. The mystic isle of Buyán is one variant
of the _raj_. Its name is probably derived from an adjective signifying
'burning,' 'ardent,' or 'fruitful,' and the isle itself is connected
with the idea of the sun, of warmth, intense light, and fruitfulness.
Buyán is the resting-place of the white stone Alatnir, a potent magical
instrument frequently mentioned in spells and charms. Like everything
else connected with Buyán, Alatnir is of burning, dazzling brilliance.
_Peklo_ also was associated with the idea of heat, possessing
affinities with the verb _pech_, to parch; but whereas _raj_ came
to signify Paradise, _peklo_, under the influence of Christian
ideas, became identified later with the infernal regions, a place of
punishment for the wicked dead. In modern folklore we find mention of
a subterranean place of the dead called _Ad_, inhabited by demons who
torment the souls of evil-doers; the corresponding Heaven (of the "Jack
and the Beanstalk" kind) is equally vague and indeterminate; and both
have been so evidently influenced by Christian conceptions that they
reveal but little of their pagan ancestry.
The _nav_ of the ancients was reached by various ways. Sometimes,
as has been indicated, the soul had to traverse a wide sea in the
boat-shaped coffin provided by relatives left on earth. Sometimes,
again, the journey was accomplished on foot, when a pair of boots was
provided; or the soul might have to climb a mountain of iron or glass,
and for this the parings of its mortal nails were laid in the coffin.
The road leading to the celestial regions was generally the Milky Way,
though sometimes the rainbow was trodden by the dead. In either case
popular imagination pictured the _nav_ a long distance away.
THE CELTIC OTHERWORLD
Besides a belief in a land of the dead, the Celts had an Otherworld
to which favoured mortals might penetrate. This region possessed
many names--Mag Mor, the Great Plain; Tir n' Aill, the Otherworld;
Tir-nan-og, the Land of Youth, the Shining Land; and so forth. It is
also called in Celtic myth the Isle of the Men of Falga, Falga being
an old name for the Isle of Man, which was connected with the god
Manannan, lord of the under-seas.
This Celtic Elysium was sometimes beyond the seas, sometimes under the
seas, or it might be situated in the hollow hills; and sometimes it
was the abode of the _Sidhe_ or elder gods. It is alluded to in the
Voyage of Bran, in the Cuchulainn cycle, and in the tale of Laegaire
mac Crimthainn. In Celtic myth it was clearly distinguished from the
subterranean place of the dead; it was a blessed region which only a
favoured few might hope to reach during life. The subterranean home of
the earth-gods is sometimes a place of the dead, because Celtic myth is
predominantly agricultural.
The Otherworld, shrouded by mist, was upon the same plane as the
terrestrial, or sometimes co-extensive with it. There dwelt the
gods and other supernatural beings. It had some resemblance to the
Mohammedan Paradise in its purely material delights, yet was not
without its spiritual aspect. It conferred oblivion for a term of years
on those who visited it, like that later Land of Faerie where long
forgetfulness awaits the wight who wanders in its enchanted glades. The
Celtic Elysium is the first step in the evolution of a Heaven.
The gods connected with it were Manannan and Lug, the sun-god, probably
because it lay in the western sea.
Some think that the Celtic Elysium was coloured by Christian story, but
such a very sensuous Paradise possesses little of the character of a
Christian Heaven.
THE HEAVEN OF ANCIENT MEXICO
Various destinations awaited the dead in ancient Mexico. Warriors slain
in battle repaired to the sun, where they dwelt in bliss with the
deity who presided over that luminary; and sacrificed captives also
fared thither. These followed the sun in his course, crying aloud and
beating upon their shields. "It is also said," writes old Sahagun in
his _History of the Affairs of New Spain_,[4] "that in this heaven are
trees and forests of diverse sorts. The offerings which the living of
this world make to the dead duly arrive at their destination, and are
received in this heaven. After four years of sojourn in that place the
souls of the dead are changed into diverse species of birds, having
rich plumage of the most brilliant colours,"[5] These were known as
_tzinzonme_ ('little bird which flies from flower to flower'), and they
flitted from blossom to blossom on earth as well as in Heaven, sucking
the rich fragrance from the tropical blooms of the deep valleys of
Anahuac.
Tlalocan, an even more material Paradise, was that of the water-god or
deity of moisture, Tlaloc. Sahagun calls this a "terrestrial Paradise"
"where they feign that there is surfeit of pleasure and refreshment,
void for a space of torment." In that delectable region there is
plenteousness of green maize, of calabashes, pepper, tomatoes, and
haricots, and it is filled with variegated blossoms. There dwell
the god Tlaloc and his followers. The persons who gain admittance
are those slain by lightning or thunderbolt, the leprous, and the
dropsical--those whose deaths have in any way been caused _through the
agency of water_--for Tlaloc is god of that element; and existence
there is perpetual. The Paradise of Tlaloc was situated in the
mountains, in a climate of eternal summer.
THE AZTEC ABODE OF THE DEAD
The Hades of the Aztec race was Mictlan, presided over by
Mictlantecutli (Lord of Mictlan) and his spouse (Mictecaciuatl). The
souls of the defunct who fared thither were those who died of disease,
chiefs, great personages, or humbler folk. On the day of death the
priest harangued the deceased, telling him that he was about to fare
to a region "where there is neither light nor window," but all was
shadow--a veritable land of chiaroscuro, reached by a route swarming
with grisly inimical forms. On arrival at the dreary court of Mictlan
the defunct offered gifts to its lord--coloured paper, perfumes, and
torches, mantles and other apparel, provided before cremation. It was a
four years' journey to the first of the nine Hells of Mictlan, over a
deep and wide river, on whose shores dwelt the dogs providently buried
with the dead and employed to carry them across the stream.
Above the nine Hells of Mictlan were thirteen Heavens, the first
containing planets, the second the Tzitzimime, or demons, the third the
Centzon Mimizcoa, or four hundred stars of the Northern Hemisphere.
The fourth was inhabited by birds, the fifth by fire-snakes (perhaps
comets); the sixth was the home of the winds; the seventh harboured
dust; and in the eighth dwelt gods. The remainder were placed at the
disposal of the high primal and creative gods, Tonacatecutli and his
spouse Tonacaciuatl, whose particular home was in the thirteenth and
highest Heaven.
THE RED MAN'S AFTER-LIFE
The red men of North and South America knew no place of future reward
or punishment. They regarded the future life merely as a shadowy
extension of this--more wonderful, more supernatural, perhaps more
desirable because of its material delights, but still of the earth
earthy. The land of the sun was for them the land of future bliss.
"Where the sun lives," they informed the earliest foreign visitors,
were the villages of the deceased, and the Milky Way which nightly
spans the arch of Heaven was, in their opinion, the road thither, and
was called the path of souls (_le chemin des âmes_). To _Hueyu ku_,
the mansion of the sun, said the Caribs, the soul passes when death
overtakes the body. To the warm South-west, whence blows the wind which
brings the sunny days and the ripening corn, said the New England
natives to Roger Williams, will all souls go.
"Our knowledge is scanty of the doctrines taught by the Incas
concerning the soul, but this much we do know, that they looked to the
sun, their recognised lord and protector, as he who would care for them
at death, and admit them to his palaces. There--not indeed, exquisite
joys--but a life of unruffled placidity, void of labour, vacant of
strong emotions, a sort of material Nirvana, awaited them."[6]
From Peru to the coast of Brazil, the savage millions who inhabited
that great stretch of watered forest pointed to the west, to the region
beyond the mountains or the blessed abode of their ancestors, where in
a continual state of intoxication they whiled away the hours of bliss.
The people of the Pampas and Patagonia considered the sky to be the
home of the dead, where they dwelt as stars. During the night they
patrol the sky, but at sunrise flock around the great luminary and are
bitten by his beams.
The Hurons, Iroquois, Chippeway, Algonquins, and Dakotas all told of a
deep and swift stream that the soul must cross, bridged either by an
enormous snake, a slender tree, or by some other precarious means, such
as a stone canoe.
In old Peru, Çupay, the shadow, ruled a land of shades in the centre of
the earth. To him went all souls not destined to be the companions of
the sun. But, like nearly all savage Hells, this was merely a 'place
of the dead' and not a place of retribution. Xibalba, the Hades of
the Kiches of Guatemala, was a grisly Underworld ruled by a veritable
secret society having-rules of initiation. The name is derived from
a root meaning 'to fear,' from which also comes the Maya term for
'phantom' or 'ghost,' and this derivation shows it to have been a
place of the dead. In the _Popol Vuh_, the sacred and traditional book
of the Kiches, we find nothing to indicate that Xibalba was a place
of punishment. Those who entered it had to undergo tests analogous
to those which a Red Indian must endure upon his initiation into any
of the numerous esoteric societies still to be found among American
barbarians; but torment is otherwise absent. The scenery of Xibalba is
varied. It is gloomy, with a river of blood, a stream full of gourds,
plantations of calabashes, courts for the ball-game, in which its
lords are very expert, and stone buildings. It is ruled by grim lords,
One-Death and Seven-Deaths. It is stated in the _Popol Vuh_ that these
were more 'devils' than gods. "In the old times they did not have much
power. They were but avengers and opposers of men, and, in truth, they
were not regarded as gods."
THE CHINOOKS
The Chinooks believe that after death the spirit of the deceased drinks
at a large hole in the ground, after which it shrinks and passes on
to the country of the ghosts, where it is fed with spirit food. After
drinking of the water and partaking of the fare of spirit-land, the
soul becomes the irrevocable property of the dead, and may not return
to earth. But every person is possessed of two spirits, a greater
and a lesser, and during sickness it is this lesser soul which is
spirited away by the denizens of ghost-land. The Navahos have a similar
belief. They assert that in the personal soul there is none of the
vital force which animates the body, nor any of the mental power,
but a third entity, a sort of spiritual body (like the _ka_ of the
ancient Egyptians), which may leave its owner and become lost, much to
his danger and discomfort. Among the Mexicans a similar spirit-body
('tonal') was recognized, much the same in character, indeed, as the
'astral body' of modern spiritualism. Among them, as with the Maya of
Yucatan, it came into existence with the name, and for this reason the
personal name was sacred and rarely uttered. It was regarded as part of
the individuality, and through it the ego might be injured. This belief
is general among the aboriginal peoples of both Americas.
In the country of the ghosts we see a striking analogy to the old
classical idea of Hades. It is a place of windless, soundless
half-dusk, inhabited by shadows who shrink from tumult of any
description, and pass a sort of shadowy extension of earthly life. It
is to be sharply distinguished from the country of the 'Supernatural
People,' who lead a much more satisfying existence.
There are other and still more mysterious regions in the sky, recorded
in the Amerindian myth of Aqas Xenas Xena. It tells how a boy who has
slain his mother mounts to the celestial sphere by a chain fastened to
the end of an arrow. He first meets the Darkness, and is then accosted
by the evening star, who asks if he has seen his game, and explains
that he is hunting men. He reaches the house of the evening star, and
finds his sons and daughter at home counting over the game-bag of the
day--dead folk. The daughter is the moon. The same thing occurs in
the house of the morning star, whose daughter is the sun. The sons of
the one star are at war with those of the other. He marries the moon,
and has children united in the middle. He returns to earth with his
wife and progeny, whom Blue Jay separates, and they die, returning
to the Sky with their mother and becoming the 'sun-dogs.' In this
day and night myth we recognize the widespread belief in celestial
regions where man exists not after death, a belief common to nearly all
American mythologies.
There is a similar myth relating to the sun, which is kept in the hut
of an old woman dwelling in the skies. From her an adventurous hero
obtains a blanket to render him immune. The myth was probably invented
to explain sunstroke.
In his work on the Lengua Indians of South America Mr W. B. Grubb gives
this account of their beliefs:
"The unseen world in its relation to man is naturally much more clearly
defined by the Indian. He holds that the _aphangak_ or departed souls
of men in the shade world (_pischischi,_ shadows) merely continue their
present life, only of course in a disembodied state. The souls of the
departed are supposed, in the ethereal state, to correspond exactly
in form and characteristics with the bodies they have left. A tall
man and a short man remain tall and short as spirits; a deformed man
remains deformed. A kindly-natured man continues so in shade-land. A
witch-doctor, or a great chief, feared and respected in the body, is
feared and respected in the spirit-world. Those who were related in
this world associate with each other in the next. Departed spirits
continue the same tribal and clan life as when in the body. The spirit
of a child remains a child and does not develop, and for this reason is
not feared. Infanticide is not regarded as murder in the same degree
as the murder of an adult. No punishment follows the murderer of an
infant, nor is its murder attended by the ordinary superstitious fears.
A murderer--that is, according to the Indian idea, a man who kills one
of his own tribe--is not only executed for the crime, but his body is
burnt, and the ashes scattered to the four winds. The Indian believes
that after such treatment his spirit cannot take human form, and
remains in the after-world shapeless and unrecognizable, and therefore
unable to mingle with its kindred spirits, or to enjoy such social
intercourse as exists.
"The _aphangak_ is supposed to hunt, travel, garden, and carry on more
or less his old life, but of course in spirit form, and pursuing only
spiritual essences. The spirits of the dead appear to take no interest
in the living, nor, beyond causing uncanny feelings when supposed to
be hovering about, do they seem in the least to influence those left
behind. Their very names are not mentioned, and every effort is made by
the living to forget them....
"Speaking generally, three ideas seem to prevail regarding the future
abode of the soul. The lower type of Indian holds that the _aphangak_
continues to wander disconsolately about the country in company with
its kindred spirits, while the more intelligent are of opinion that it
moves over to the west, to the cities of the dead, already referred
to in dealing with their origin. A few, however, hold a view similar
to that prevailing among the Southern tribes--namely, that the dead
inhabit a world beneath the earth.
"The lower creation, with the exception of fish and serpents, are
supposed to share immortality with men. Birds, cattle, and the
carnivora, especially of the leading types, figure largely in their
beliefs of the shade-world, as also the dog, jaguar, horse, ostrich,
and the thunder-bird."
AFRICAN IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE
Among African savages generally the life of the dead is merely an
extension of earth-life. In the Kimbunda district of South-west Africa
the dead dwell in a region called Kalunga, where they have plenty of
provisions and an abundance of female servitors. They engage in the
dance and the chase for pastime. In Kalunga the sun shines when it is
night in the world of mortals. The Basutos believe in an Otherworld of
green valleys, where the dead own herds of hornless and speckled cattle
from which they can draw sustenance. Others of the same people believe
that the dead wander about in silent reserve, with no feelings of joy
or sorrow to agitate them or disturb what seems to be a condition of
nescience. There is no moral retribution. The West Africans do not seem
to believe in a 'land of heart's desire.' The Dahomans hold that in the
Otherworld social status will be unchanged. Thus the king will retain
his sovereignty and the slave his serfdom 'for ever.' He also credits
the existence of another land beyond the grave, 'Ku-to-men' or Dead
Man's Land, a place of ghosts and shadows. Turning southward again, the
Zulus think that after death their souls proceed to the land of the
Abapansi or underground folk.
BORNEO
In Borneo the Idaan race have a Heaven which is to be seen. Indeed,
it is situated on the summit of Mount Kina Balu, on whose peak no
native guide would pass the night. There the adventurous traveller is
shown the moss on which the spirits feed, and the hoof-prints of their
ghostly herds of buffalo. The Sajera of West Java possess another such
Heaven on the summit of Tunung Danka. It took Mr Jonathan Rigg ten
years to discover this fact among a population outwardly professing
Mohammedanism.[7] The Fijians consider that Bolotu, the island of
the gods, lies in the ocean north-west of Tonga. It is extensive
and is replete with everything which can make for an existence of
physical satisfaction. Like the Norsemen, they believe that the swine
slaughtered in their Paradise will reappear when again required for the
feast. The Samoan Otherworld is a mere shadowy replica of this.
CONCLUSIONS
From these data several considerations of importance arise. We see that
among the classical religions of antiquity--the Egyptian, Babylonian,
Hebrew, for example--the idea of judgment, retribution, and reward
arose in connexion with their places of bliss and punishment. On the
other hand, we find in the myths of the Teutons, Mexicans, and people
in the barbaric stages generally that a place of bliss is reserved, in
most cases, for the warrior, while those who die a 'straw death' are
deemed unfit to enter the Valhalla of the brave. Still further down
in the scale of civilization we see that Africans, American Indians,
Fijians, and other people in a state of savagery more or less, regard
the future dwelling-place of the soul as a pale reflex of the world in
which they have been accustomed to dwell--sometimes with mitigating
circumstances and improved surroundings. Thus the savage hunts,
gorges himself, and wallows in happy intoxication; the more advanced
barbarian comports himself as a warrior and feasts homerically; while
the civilized man must be judged ere he can betake himself to an
immortal destination of bliss or torture. Only in the higher reaches
of civilization does any idea of judgment, retribution, or reward, as
distinguished from mere sensuous pleasure, enter into the future life.
There is one strange exception to this rule, and that is Greece. This
is probably because Greek ethics was nurtured more upon philosophic
than religious ideals. We find the exact opposite of the philosophic
ethics of Hellas in the drastic religious morality of the Semitic race.
The idea of judgment is seen only in early Greek myth.
But the most important question for us, discussing the manufacture
and evolution of myth, is: How far have ethical promptings influenced
mythic conceptions of a place of future reward or punishment?
They have influenced it very powerfully. Let us regard these beliefs
in the line of their evolution. In primitive (_i.e_., savage)
civilization we find a mere home of the dead, like that of the peoples
of the north-west coast of America, the Samoans, or the peoples of
Western Africa. The dead there may be kings or medicine-men, warriors
or slaves, as in the mortal life, but there is no ruler, no Pluto or
Satan. Later, in the barbaric stage, we find monarchs or arch-devils,
such as Mictlantecutli of Mexico, Çupay of Peru, or Hel of Scandinavia.
These, however, are merely there from a supposed necessity for a
headship, or because they chance to be corn-spirits like the Greek
Persephone; for agricultural spirits usually reside in the earth.
Indeed the myth of Persephone well illustrates the adaptation of a
corn-spirit to the lordship (or ladyship) of Hades, and probably
represents a fusion of myths in which that of the corn-spirit was
grafted on to the already accepted lord of the place of the dead.
The daughter of the chief of Xibalba, the Kiche Hell, is also a
corn-spirit, as witness her gathering of a basket of maize where no
maize had grown before; and even Osiris, great god of the Egyptian
dead, was primarily connected with the 'agricultural interest.'
It is only in the higher stages of religion, when ethical significance
has become a _fait accompli_, that we find the god of the Otherworld
metamorphosed into a judge who disposes of the souls of men according
to their deserts. Thus we find that ethical ideas strongly affect the
mythic character of the lords of the Otherworld, and may alter them
from mere presiding demons into god-like arbiters of the fate of the
soul. Further, the introduction, evolution, or acceptance of ethical
ideas may entirely alter the scenery and geography of the Hades myth,
and from a nebulous environment of ghostly savagery the place of the
dead may on the one hand blossom into a sensuous Paradise or flash into
flame as Gehenna.
HEAVEN AND THE SKY
The manner in which Heaven, the place of bliss, came to be associated
with the sky and the region of woe with the Underworld is worthy of
brief consideration. We have seen that many various peoples--Celts,
Indians, Fijians--believed their Paradise, their 'land of heart's
desire,' to be in the west, where sinks the dying sun. To the mind
of primitive man the sun was the source of all good, the nourisher,
the giver of light; and no bliss greater than that of accompanying
him in his course through the heavens could be imagined. Man beheld
him sink and die in the waves of ocean or behind the peaks of the
great mountains, and, comparing this with the death of his own kind,
concluded that the luminary betook himself to rest in some region
beyond the verge of sea or sierra. "If the souls of the dead follow the
sun it must be to such a region," he would argue: so would arise the
concept of a Tir-nan-og, a sun-Paradise beyond the world's rim.[8]
Not thus did all religious philosophers of old time reason--not thus
the mythographers of Babylon, for example, those astrologer-priests who
watched from tower and temple the wheelings of the white host of stars
which silvered the skies above the city of Bel. These had identified
the various gods in their pantheon with the stars and heavenly bodies.
Once this had been done it is easy to understand how the gods were
conceived as dwelling in the sky. Races who believed in a Paradise
beyond the setting sun did not place their great divinities in the
sky. The Celtic gods lived in their sunset Elysium; the deities of the
Samoan tale dwell in an island Paradise. Roughly, peoples dwelling near
the western sea (Celts, West Africans, North-west American Indians,
etc.) locate their Paradise beneath the rim of ocean; peoples dwelling
at the foot of mountain ranges (Greeks, Javanese, etc.) believe the
Otherworld to be situated on their summits; while peoples dwelling
in plains or deserts (Plains Indians, Babylonians, certain Egyptian
castes, etc.) place their Heaven in the sky among the constellations.
HADES AND THE UNDERWORLD
On the other hand, the Otherworld becomes the Underworld, because of
the subterranean burial of the dead. Under the earth is the home of
the dead, and there rest their shades or spirits. The Greeks believed
Hades to be situated only twelve feet beneath the surface of the soil.
Again, the practice of burial in caverns may have assisted this belief.
The scenery of the Otherworld, from Homer to Dante, is decidedly
cavernous. The lords of Hell are frequently the gods of a conquered or
subject race, relegated to the Underworld by the policy or contempt of
the conquerors. Thus the Irish Tuatha de Danann, who dwell underground,
were once the chief gods of Ireland, and were displaced by an incoming
people; and we can trace in the gigantic figure of Osiris the primeval
god of an agricultural people placed over the popular world of the
Egyptian dead, partly perhaps by the deliberate policy of the priests
of Ra, partly by reason of his status as a corn-god, and developing
into the great ruler of the realm of the dead.
[1] See above, p. 122.
[2] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, vol. i, pp. 264-265.
[3] The writer does not recall having read this passage until a few
weeks ago, yet in a volume of verse published in 1913 he included some
stanzas the two last of which offer such a striking resemblance to the
Biblical verses just quoted that he ventures to print them here as
an example of the manner in which the imagination of men may run on
similar lines, although centuries of time separate them:
THE DEAD
Do ye hearken, ye dead, with your faces so nobly quiet,
Do ye list to the lays that are sung, and the lusts that are said,
Do ye wot of the frenzies, the fears, the desires, and the riot,
Do ye hearken, ye dead?
"O'er our lips and our hearts are the sods and the cerements spread,
But we hearken the harps and the whispers, the songs that ye sigh at,
All your manifold furies and fears do we list in our bed.
"We would rise, we would rise to partake of your doom and your diet,
But on lips and on eyes the worms and the vampires have fed,
We can kiss, we can smile not--awaiting eternity's fiat.
We hearken, we dead!"
[4] Appendix to Book III, chap. iii.
[5] I quote from my own manuscript translation of Sagahun.
[6] Brinton, _Myths of the New World._
[7] _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, vol. iv, p. 119.
[8] Compare the recently coined (?) war phrase or idiom 'gone west.'