Underworld

Mesopotamian tradition

• Underworld appears in Mesopotamian tradition.

  Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s underworld material is a Mesopotamian below. It is not Xibalba’s ballcourt of trials.

  from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)

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• Water is associated with Underworld.

  Gilgamesh’s journeys include waters that bound the world of the dead and the far-away. Mesopotamian waters of the dead are not the Styx by another name until later readers say so.

  from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)

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Egyptian religion

• Underworld appears in Egyptian religion.

  The Book of the Dead maps a below with gates, gods, and a weighing. That Duat is Egyptian.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

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• Underworld is connected to Duat.

  Walking the underworld page should reach Duat as a named Egyptian instance, not an alias.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

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• Thoth is associated with Underworld.

  Thoth is present at the weighing of the dead. The underworld is the Egyptian Duat of the spells, not Hades or Xibalba.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

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• Rebirth is associated with Underworld.

  The dead in Egyptian spells travel a below that is also a solar night road. Rebirth and underworld meet there as an Egyptian itinerary.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

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• Duat is connected to Underworld.

  Duat is one underworld. Connecting the names is a comparative convenience; they remain two places.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

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Hellenic religion

• Underworld appears in Hellenic religion.

  Greek Hades is a named below with its own keepers. Pausanias visits cults of the dead and of chthonic gods as a traveler.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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• Underworld is connected to Hades.

  Walking the underworld page should reach Hades as a named Greek instance, not an alias.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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• Key is associated with Underworld.

  Greek and later Mediterranean images give keys to figures who keep the dead. The key is a lock-tool borrowed by a geography of below.

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• Hades is connected to Underworld.

  Hades is one underworld. The category-word should not be used as its alias.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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Maya tradition

• Underworld is connected to Xibalba.

  Xibalba is one underworld. Connecting the two names is a comparative convenience; they should remain two places.

  from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996

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Roman religion

• Underworld appears in Roman religion.

  Virgil’s Aeneid Book 6 seats the underworld as the katabasis Aeneas walks with the Sibyl among shades and future Romans. A named underworld journey in that epic, not Duat and not the hellenic underworld row alone.

  from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)

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Norse tradition

• Underworld appears in Norse tradition.

  Eddic poems in the Poetic Edda seat journeys and speech toward Hel’s realm among the dead. A named underworld class in that corpus, not Christian hell and not every chthonic dump.

  from Anonymous (Eddic poems); Carolyne Larrington (translation) · Poetic Edda, medieval Icelandic compilation; Larrington trans. 1996/2014

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• Tree is associated with Underworld.

  One of Yggdrasil’s roots, in Snorri, reaches toward the dead. The below is a Norse below.

  from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

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Shinto

• Underworld appears in Shinto.

  The Kojiki sends Izanagi into the land of the dead and stages the looking-ban rupture there. Underworld as that descent’s realm-type in tradition speech, not Yomi as the named place id alone and not Xibalba or Hel under one label.

  from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968

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• Labyrinth is associated with Underworld.

  A folding path has been compared to a descent. The comparison is easy and therefore suspect; this seed keeps it interpretive.

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• Death is associated with Underworld.

  Many traditions give the dead a place. The places disagree; this edge only says that death and a below are often paired, not that they are one map.

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• Cave is associated with Underworld.

  A cave is an ordinary below that stories sometimes treat as a door to the dead. The comparison is easy; keep it interpretive.

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• Descent is connected to Underworld.

  Descent is the act; underworld is a name for some destinations. Not every below is the same map.

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Celtic tradition

• Annwn is connected to Underworld.

  Annwn is one otherworld. The English word underworld is a blunt category; the Welsh place has its own rules of feast and raid.

  from Anonymous (Welsh prose); Sioned Davies (translation) · The Mabinogion, medieval Welsh manuscripts; Davies trans. 2007

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