Dante, Inferno
Acheron in Dante’s Journey
The river where the arriving dead assemble for Charon’s crossing.
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Cosmologies describe the order of a world and the places within it. Here, accounts of creation and the afterlife sit alongside named realms in particular texts. Read each world through the source that gives it form.
Choose a question, then follow the entry to its original sources.
Understand Heaven through Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Bahá’í accounts, with clear distinctions between paradise and liberation.
Blessed states and celestial realms across selected traditionsExplore Hell through Christian debate, Jewish Gehinnom, Islamic Jahannam, Buddhist suffering realms and Zoroastrian accounts without treating them as identical.
Punishment, purification and separation in selected traditionsDiscover Jannah in Islamic teaching: gardens, divine pleasure, gates, companionship and the sources behind descriptions of paradise.
Paradise in Islamic scripture and interpretationUnderstand Jahannam through Qur’anic warnings, hadith, intercession and Muslim debates about judgment, divine mercy and the duration of punishment.
Judgment, punishment and mercy in Islamic teachingExplore Naraka and Niraya through Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sources, with distinct accounts of karma, suffering, judgment and rebirth.
Suffering realms in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditionsUnderstand Purgatory as Catholic final purification, its relationship with prayer for the dead, Reformation disagreement and Dante’s literary mountain.
Final purification in Catholic teaching and Christian debateTrace Gehenna and Gehinnom from the Valley of Hinnom to Jewish and Christian accounts of judgment, with primary texts and distinctions between interpretations.
A place-name and language of judgment in Jewish and Christian textsUnderstand Sheol in the Hebrew Bible, its images of darkness and descent, and why translations such as grave or Hell can obscure its meaning.
The dead and their dwelling in the Hebrew BibleExplore Hades as the Greek realm of the dead through Homer, funerary practice and Plato, with a separate look at Virgil’s Roman underworld.
The realm of the dead in Greek literature and its Roman receptionDiscover Elysium and the Islands of the Blessed in Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and Virgil, tracing changing ideas of privilege, virtue and life after death.
Blessed destinations in Greek and Roman poetryExplore Sukhavati, Amitabha’s Western Pure Land, through Buddhist sutras, Japanese traditions, devotional practice and historical art.
Amitabha’s Pure Land and the aspiration to awakeningUnderstand devaloka and divine worlds through Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sources, with clear distinctions between heavenly rebirth and liberation.
Divine worlds and the limits of heavenly rebirthExplore Vaikuntha as Vishnu’s abode through Vaishnava teaching, Ramanuja’s devotional tradition and the festival of Vaikuntha Ekadashi.
Vishnu’s abode in Vaishnava devotion and theologyExplore Kailasa as Shiva’s abode, its portrayal in myth and sacred art, and the distinct traditions associated with the physical mountain of Kailash.
Shiva’s sacred abode and the mountain landscape of pilgrimageExplore Yomi through the Kojiki, scholarly interpretation and a historical Library retelling, tracing the boundary between the living and the dead.
The land of the dead in early Japanese narrative and later interpretationExplore the Egyptian Duat through funerary texts, the sun’s night journey, judgment and renewal, with surviving papyri and historical Library editions.
The dead, the sun’s night journey and renewal in ancient EgyptUnderstand the Chinvat Bridge in Zoroastrian texts, from the soul’s passage after death to impartial judgment and the encounter with its own deeds.
The soul’s crossing and moral judgment in Zoroastrian textsBegin with a map of the astral world in Theosophical writing.
Theosophical astral cosmologyEnter an account of the Egyptian afterlife through its source passages.
Egyptian funerary religionExplore a named Buddhist heaven within the collection’s account.
Buddhist traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy109 entries · A–Z
Dante, Inferno
The river where the arriving dead assemble for Charon’s crossing.
Egyptian funerary religion
The Hidden Land divided into domains of posthumous life.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A shadow realm reached through fairy lakes and ruled in different tales by named kings.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 edition
The otherworld kingdom entered through an exchange of royal appearance and duty.
Dante, Inferno
The part of the ice where the encounter with Bocca leads to accusations of betrayal.
Theosophical astral cosmology
Theosophy’s intermediate world, divided by states of consciousness and matter.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
The royal city whose ideal order is broken by Rama’s exile and restored by his return.
John Milton, Paradise Lost
The road made by Sin and Death across the abyss after the human fall.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A tree-side resting place where a devout monk sleeps beyond his lifetime.
Dante, Inferno
The first division of the frozen circle, introduced through entangled family figures.
Celtic fairy traditions
Breton megalithic landscape surrounded by living tales of korrigans.
Celtic fairy traditions
A named entrance associated with Sidhe visitors and Nera’s adventure.
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The heavenly river separating Tanabata and Hikoboshi in Davis's star-lovers legend.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
The sacred city associated in the collection with Shiva’s dance and the Golden Court.
The soul’s crossing and moral judgment in Zoroastrian texts
Understand the Chinvat Bridge in Zoroastrian texts, from the soul’s passage after death to impartial judgment and the encounter with its own deeds.
Dante, Inferno
The lake of immobilising cold at the bottom of Dante’s Inferno.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A fairy stronghold and, in another legend, the hidden resting place of Arthur’s warriors.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A lake whose submerged town becomes the foundation of fairy palaces.
Dante, Inferno
The forest where the traveller discovers that he has left the direct path.
Dante, Purgatory and Paradise
The fragrant forest at the mountain’s summit where memory is renewed.
Dante, Purgatory and Paradise
The mountain where purified desire makes ascent possible.
Divine worlds and the limits of heavenly rebirth
Understand devaloka and divine worlds through Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sources, with clear distinctions between heavenly rebirth and liberation.
The Mabinogion, Guest’s 1877 edition
The strong place in Snowdon where the captured dragons are hidden.
The dead, the sun’s night journey and renewal in ancient Egypt
Explore the Egyptian Duat through funerary texts, the sun’s night journey, judgment and renewal, with surviving papyri and historical Library editions.