place

Underworld

Places · Myth & story

A region of the dead imagined below or beyond. Greek Hades, Egyptian Duat, and Kʼicheʼ Xibalba are different geographies that should not be used as aliases for one another.

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)

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • 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)

    associated with · partially sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

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

    appears in · partially sourced · documented

  • 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

    connected to · partially sourced · documented

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • 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

    connected to · partially sourced · documented

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

    connected to · sourced · culturally specific

Norse tradition

  • 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

    associated with · partially sourced · documented

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · speculative

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · documented

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · speculative

  • Descent is connected to Underworld.

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

    connected to · interpretive · documented

Celtic tradition

sources

  • Epic of Gilgamesh

    The Epic of Gilgamesh, Standard Babylonian version (flood tablet; underworld material).

  • Book of the Dead · Raymond O. Faulkner (translation)

    Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.

  • Description of Greece · Pausanias

    Pausanias, Description of Greece.

  • Popol Vuh · Dennis Tedlock (translation)

    Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life.

  • Gylfaginning · Snorri Sturluson

    Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda.

  • The Mabinogion · Anonymous (Welsh prose); Sioned Davies (translation)

    The Mabinogion, trans. Sioned Davies.