Pleading for Hell:

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Pleading for Hell: "
Walter Burkert

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1079008
Doc. No	:	LA122637
Call No	:	‭10.1163/156852709X404955‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Walter Burkert
Title & Author	:	Pleading for Hell: [Article] : Postulates, Fantasies, and the Senselessness of Punishment\ Walter Burkert
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Numen
Date	:	2009
Volume/ Issue Number	:	56/2-3
Page No	:	141–160
Abstract	:	If the ideal of justice includes effective punishment of offenders, an extension into afterlife must be postulated. This still involves all the questionable aspects and paradoxes of punishment that make rational and enlightened argumentation difficult. A historical survey of ancient tentatives at hell lore shows diverse starting points and interests. There is just a germ of such speculations in Sumerian. When hell fire first appears in Egypt, it goes together with the fear of magic from the dead; in Zoroastrianism and Judaism it is partisan interest which makes the adherents of the wrong religion destined for hell. In Greece we find various ethical and poetical motifs interfering, from the powerful yet enigmatic images in the Odyssey to a general proclamation of punishments in the Hymn to Demeter. The most graphic and horrible descriptions of something like hell are finally found in Plato, whose sources — besides Homer — can be postulated but not identified. If the ideal of justice includes effective punishment of offenders, an extension into afterlife must be postulated. This still involves all the questionable aspects and paradoxes of punishment that make rational and enlightened argumentation difficult. A historical survey of ancient tentatives at hell lore shows diverse starting points and interests. There is just a germ of such speculations in Sumerian. When hell fire first appears in Egypt, it goes together with the fear of magic from the dead; in Zoroastrianism and Judaism it is partisan interest which makes the adherents of the wrong religion destined for hell. In Greece we find various ethical and poetical motifs interfering, from the powerful yet enigmatic images in the Odyssey to a general proclamation of punishments in the Hymn to Demeter. The most graphic and horrible descriptions of something like hell are finally found in Plato, whose sources — besides Homer — can be postulated but not identified.
Descriptor	:	NEKYIA
Descriptor	:	PLATO'S MYTHS
Descriptor	:	PROBLEM OF PUNISHMENT
Descriptor	:	SISYPHOS
Descriptor	:	SUMERIAN HELL
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/156852709X404955‬