ANCIENT AND MODERN IDEAS OF HELL. 489 

 ANCIENT AND MODERN IDEAS OF HELL. 



By FEEDEEIK A. FEENALD. 



THE idea of a place for tlie punishment after death of wicked 

 men is found in most, though not all, of the religions of the 

 present time and of antiquity. According to some beliefs, the 

 punishment is to last forever ; according to others, the torments 

 are to continue only for a time, and are to result in purifying the 

 imprisoned souls and fitting them for heaven. The Roman Cath- 

 olic religion has both a purgatory, or place of temporary torment, 

 and a hell, 'which is everlasting. No idea of penalty was connect- 

 ed with the classic hades — it was simply an under-world where 

 dwelt all those who had the misfortune to be dead, irrespective of 

 their conduct in life. The word comes from the Greek adjective 

 'Aifys, meaning unseen. The English word hell had also origi- 

 nally the same meaning. It is derived from the Teutonic base 

 lial, whence also the Anglo-Saxon Tielan, to hide, "so that the 

 original sense is the hidden or unseen place " (Skeat). 



The conception of future existence which lays claim to the 

 greatest antiquity is that of the ancient Egyptians. According 

 to the Egyptian belief, if the great judgment resulted adversely, 

 " the condemned soul is either scourged back to the earth straight- 

 way, to live again in the form of a vile animal, as some of the 

 emblems appear to denote ; or plunged into the tortures of a hor- 

 rid hell of fire and devils below, as numerous engravings set forth ; 

 or driven into the atmosphere, to be vexed and tossed by tem- 

 pests, violently whirled in blasts and clouds, till its sins are ex- 

 piated, and another probation granted through a renewed exist- 

 ence in human form," * In his description of the Ritual of the 

 Dead, Renouf f mentions chapters in that book intended to secure 

 the soul against dangers in the nether world, such as having his 

 head cut off, dying the second death, suffering corruption, being 

 turned away from his house, going to the nemmat (an infernal 

 block for the execution of the wicked), going headlong into the 

 cherti-nutar, and eating or drinking filth. Various divinities are 

 invoked to save the soul from that god who feeds upon the ac- 

 cursed, from that god, who seizes upon souls, devours hearts, and 

 feeds upon carcasses. These perils which the good escape, says 

 Renouf, sufficiently show the fate which the wicked must expect. 

 From Persia, also, we get a religion of great antiquity — Zoro- 

 astrianism — which, in a modified form, is held to-day by the small 



* William E. Alger, A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, tenth edition, 

 1878, p. 103. 



f The Religion of Ancient Egypt. 



