The Underworld or There and Back Again... Not a Hobbit's Tale

Today in class, Dr. Schuler joked that he was going to take us to hell and back during our discussion. We all laughed at this, but the real question I have is, is Hades really Hell? I don’t think so. Hell, according to the Bible, is where all men who have not accepted Christ’s gift of Salvation are sent after their deaths. Conversely, Hades is the afterlife. There is no distinction for those that are sent there. Those sent to Hades are both good and bad. Only those souls that have does great acts of good or great acts of evil are distinguished from the other souls.

So, while we were taken to the Underworld and back again we were not necessarily taken to Hell and back again. In Hades, the souls are not tortured they just wander around without knowledge of themselves until a sacrifice of blood is offered. In Hell however, souls are tortured for eternity and there is no hope for them at all.

So our journey today did take us ‘there and back again’ but not exactly in the way Dr. Schuler was thinking.

Tantum e tenebris receptum constabit

~Meghan

PS I commented on Becca’s post “Death and Odysseus”