As light slips from our world Ra descends into the Underworld, to navigate the rivers of the Duat. There he and his companions face Apophis, whose desire is to swallow Ra forever. The defeating of this monster, and the god's triumphant return as the rising sun, is a tale of rebirth and victory.
The symbolism of this Egyptian myth illustrates the eternal struggle against darkness. But it isn’t only the darkness of a single night that the sun’s absence represents: it’s also the absence of fertility and the onset of winter. Bound to the rhythms of these cycles we are also affected by them, both physically and mentally. It’s little wonder that, in Celtic myth, the Morrígan and Dagda come together at Samhain to usher in the coming of winter – to be reborn in the spring. In ancient Sumerian mythology, the Goddess Innana and her lover, Dumuzi, each spend six months of the year in the Underworld and six months in the world above. The procession of the seasons is also that of life and death. So too a human life progresses from the spring of its youth to the winter of its death.
It’s something that’s fascinated humans since time immemorial. Archaeologists in Iraq uncovered the bodies of Neanderthals who’d been deliberately buried by their tribe. These remains were dated to about 70,000 years ago. Pollen deposits, found around the skeletons, suggest that flowers had been brought into the cave and placed with the deceased. A token of loss or nectar for the next world?
Every culture has described this realm of the dead: a place where the ancestors wait. There are ancient books that lay out the correct method of embarkation, such as the Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead. The latter provides instructions of how the soul should navigate the Duat. This was portrayed as a remote and inaccessible realm where the souls of the dead would be judged. Their hearts would be weighed on great scales by the god Anubis. Each organ would be set against the feather of Ma'at, goddess of truth and justice. Those unworthy would remain in the Duat, those who were worthy were sent to Aaru – a more hospitable zone of the Underworld.
To the Greeks, Hades was a miserable place ruled by the god of the same name and his consort Persephone. It was a gloomy place, populated by phantasms. Hades was the jailor and this Underworld was where the souls of the deceased existed under his dominion. Similarly the Japanese had Yomi, another gloomy realm.
Elsewhere the Underworld exists as a stop-over on the way forward, a terminal en route to the next world. The Celts believed in the soul's transmigration. Similar notions exist in Eastern traditions. If life was bound by cyclical motions: night and day, spring to winter, plant to seed, then why not humanity?
Like the Iron-Age Norse, the Celts held tenaciously to their tribal values, even as they were pushed to the fringes of Europe by the Romans. They raided cattle and possessed great gusto for life – just as the Bronze-Age Grecians of Homeric tales did. That the Celts are reported speeding naked into battle, perhaps projects their renown as brave warriors. The conviction of their belief in rebirth enabled them to assuage their fears of Roman javelins.
Though the Celts believed in reincarnation, some also believed in the Underworld. It was a realm that went by various names, chief among them was Annwn and Tir na nÓg. These were lands of mystery and bounty, populated by miraculous beings and magical places.
In Norse cosmology the Underworld was populated by giants and wolves. Odin held his own court in the great hall, Vahöll (Valhalla). Here he was surrounded by slain heroes, banqueting and fighting as they had in life, revelling in perpetual glory – and awaiting the final battle at Ragnarök. There was also Niflheimr where the goddess Hel resided. To her hall, Èljúdnir (meaning ‘rain-dampened’), went the treacherous, the murderers and thieves. Its gate was guarded by a fierce dog called Garmr – resembling Cerberus of Greek legend.
Underworlds and heavens have been used by monotheistic priesthoods – such as Christianity’s – in their attempt to monopolise the soul of mankind. Such sects turned the afterlife into places to be desired (in the sky – heaven), or feared (in the ground – hell). Heaven was only obtainable if you didn’t sin; the value of sin being set by the moral standards of the elite*. How many people lived in terror that they’d go to Hell for coveting their neighbour’s wife? Or for having sinful thoughts? This Big Brother of the mind, enforced by religious doctrine and sadists from the pulpit is a sad thing indeed.
To me there’s something edifying, and very human, in this search for some form of world beyond the boundaries of our own. I’m very much a believer in the intuition of the ancients. I think they could tell us a thing or two about the world – the world before we categorised it into abstraction. If there’s an afterlife, an Underworld, then I’m pretty certain it’s open to all. Hell exists solely in the minds of humans.
Notes:
*It’s telling that most often those that set such moral standards are the abusers of such systems.
References:
Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient World – Compiled by L.F.C.
Who's Who in Classical Mythology – Michael Grant and John Hazel
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Gods & Goddesses of the Celtic Realms – Dave Stone
Descriptions of Hades always made me think of Duluth. But then I've since read tales set in various cities of the UK.…Not necessarily a bad place but you feel trapped. Some people find it restful.
(How do you pronounce Duluth? An Australian friend thought it was DULL-uth. It's vaguely French—our pronunciation, the name is French: daLOOTH…like saying the tooth.)