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68 Descent into the Underworld
Descent into the Underworld
A theme of descent into the underworld is found
in many different religious traditions, in the form
of myths and rituals. The underworld is usually
viewed as being physically located in a given place
underneath the earth; for example, under a mountain,
or beyond an ocean that can be reached only
by crossing a narrow and dangerous bridge. The
dark kingdom of the underworld typically
contains various spirits, a king and/or a queen, a
devil figure, or some other mythical characters,
who rule the souls of the dead.
In the cultural tradition that spread from
Siberia and Asia to the American continent and the
Pacific islands, the descent to the underworld was
an important part of the spiritual complex referred
to as shamanism. The shaman’s healing power
stemmed from his ability to descend to the underworld
to visit the spirits who caused the illness of
the patient. Upon his return, the shaman sang of
his journey in the underworld, the crossing of a
bridge over the ocean, and the encounter with the
spirits. The shaman’s task could also include foreseeing
the future or the weather, or finding a
person or a lost object, or guiding the wandering
spirits of the dead to the realm of the dead.
In the ancient Western world there were a
number of myths that recounted descent into the
underworld of an heroic or divine being, who
aimed to rescue a beloved one or to obtain immortality
and wisdom. In one of the most ancient
accounts of a journey to the underworld, the
Sumerian goddess Inanna (in the Akkadian civilization
she was called Ishtar) experienced a descent
into the underworld where she underwent a sort of
initiation process of death and rebirth. During the
journey, the goddess went through seven gates,
gradually taking off all of her clothes and ornaments.
At the end of the journey, the goddess died
and the vegetation on earth immediately wilted.
When sprinkled with the water of life, the goddess
came back to life, thus regenerating the earth.
A mythical hero of the ancient Greek world
was Orpheus, poet and musician whose wife,
Eurydice, died from the bite of a snake. Orpheus’s
art was so powerful that he enchanted the king of
Hades and convinced him to release his wife,
although his violation of the condition that he not
look at her until they were completely back in the
world resulted in the loss of Eurydice. The theme
of the failure of the hero to complete his task in
the underworld realm of the departed represents
the effort of the human imagination to come to
grips with the unavoidable fate of death.
In the Greek world, a somewhat related myth is
the story of Persephone. Persephone was
kidnapped by Hades. Her mother Demeter,
goddess of grain, mourned the loss of her daughter,
which resulted in the death of vegetation and
humankind’s starvation. The gods eventually
agreed that Persephone should be returned to her
mother. In the meanwhile, however, Hades had
made Persephone eat the fruit of the dead (seeds
of pomegranate, symbol of fertility and blood),
and thus bound her to the realm of the dead. The
final agreement was that, for half of the year,
Persephone was the ruling queen of Hades, and
for the other half, she was with her mother
Demeter. Although this myth was originally interpreted
as explaining the vegetation cycle, various
elements indicate the characteristics of a process
of female initiation: her descent to the underworld
that ended with her marriage to Hades (she
became Queen of Hades) could symbolize her
death as virgin and the achievement of a new
status—from daughter to wife.
In the Christian tradition, the underworld is a
place of damnation for sinners. In early apocryphal
literature, Christ was described as descending
into hell to rescue the damned and to demonstrate
his victory over the reign of evil. In medieval
culture, the first part of the Divina Commedia, the
Inferno, describes Dante’s descent to hell under the
guidance of the Latin poet Virgil.
See also Dante Alighieri; Underworld; Virgil
For Further Reading:
Eliade, Mircea, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion. New
York: Macmillan, 1987.
Eliade, Mircea. A History of Religious Ideas. Vol. 1.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Turner, Alice K. The History of Hell. New York:
Harcourt Brace & Co., 1993.
“The Devil and Daniel Webster”
In this 1936 short story by Stephen Vincent Benet,
an impoverished farmer from New Hampshire,