hell

according to the majority of religious teachings, the abode of the souls of sinners supposedly doomed to eternal suffering. Concepts of hell arose from primitive beliefs in the existence of the soul beyond the grave. As religions developed, the concept of hell as a place intended exclusively for the souls of sinners arose. According to ancient Greek mythology, the gloomiest part in the kingdom of shades (the kingdom of the dead) was Tartarus, the dwelling place of the evil. In Judaism hell (Sheol) was initially the subterranean region to which the shades of all the dead, both the sinners and the just, descended. Later hell was represented as the place where the souls of sinners were subjected to suffering. Christianity accepted this representation of hell. A brilliant expression of the Western European medieval concept of hell can be found in Dante’s Divine Comedy. The concept of hell also exists in the Eastern religions of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Theologians and clergymen use the concept of hell, which they contrast with paradise, to influence the conscience and feelings of believers.