Heaven and Hell: Visions of the Afterlife in the Western Poetic Tradition

by Louis A. Markos

For thousands of years, philosophers, theologians, and poets have tried to pierce through the veil of death to gaze with wonder, fear, and awe on the final and eternal state of the soul. Indeed, the four great epic poets of the Western tradition (Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton) structured their epics in part around a descent into the underworld that is both spiritual and physical, both allegorical and geographical. This book not only considers closely these epic journeys to the "other side" but explores the chain of influences that connects the poets to such writers as Plato, Cicero, St. John, St. Paul, Bunyan, Blake, and C. S. Lewis. Written in a narrative, "man of letters" style and complete with an annotated bibliography, a timeline, a who's who, and an extensive glossary of Jewish, Christian, and mythological terms, this user-friendly book will help readers understand how heaven and hell have been depicted for the last 3,000 years.

Genres: Literary Criticism

244 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2013

About the author

Dr. Markos earned his B.A. in English and History from Colgate University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan. At the University of Michigan, he specialized in British Romantic Poetry, Literary Theory, and the Classics.

He has taught at Houston Baptist University since 1991, where he is Professor in English and holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities.

Reviews

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent overview of the stories that have influenced and shaped our views of Heaven and Hell from ancient times until now. I particularly enjoyed the author's exploration of the chain of influences that have connected all these stories and the way that they've been tweaked to express new ideas in the "journey to the other side" format. For example, I never realized that the rebellious Titans' deepest level of hell (Tartarus) shows up in 2 Peter 2:4 (the only spot in the Bible) by using the word Tartarus to signify Hell:

"God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell [Tartarus]", and delivered them into chains of darkenss, to be reserved unto judgment." What makes the use here of Tartarus quite stunning is that the rebellious Titans of Greek mythology share much in common with the "sons of God" who mate with the "daughters of men" to produce the nephilim (see Gen. 6:1-4) and who are then (according to the pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch) put in prison to await judgment. ... just as Hell in the New Testament is linked both to the angelic rebellion of the "sons of God" and to the punishment of sinners, so Tartarus functions as both the prison of the Titans and the place of suffering for such archetypal sinners as Tantalus, Ixion, and Sisyphus: the sinners, that is, whose cries Orpheus hears rising up from the pit below.

Of particular interest to me were the in-depth looks at the Divine Comedy, the hijacking of Milton's Satan by the Romantics (I will never look at William Blake the same way), and how it continues to influence us today via the Byronic hero.

Louis Markos is a Protestant but he has a deep understanding of Catholic theology that would put many a Catholic to shame. His explanation of Purgatory in his preface to Dante's Purgatorio is masterful in explaining both the theology and the way Americans misinterpret it precisely because of their American identity. This is just a bit:

Purgatory is not about "earning our salvation," but, in having already been saved by Christ's sacrifice on the cross, working with the Spirit to present ourselves as clean vessels. Out of pure grace and love, the Prince lifts Cinderella out of the cinders and takes her to his castle. But Cinderella would never think of entering her future home until she had the chance to wash, fix her hair, and put on her finest gown. The American Christian, in his somewhat adolescent way, asks if all of this is "fair." But Purgatory is not about fairness; it is about freedom.

This signals that I can trust Markos to be just as careful in communicating information I am not familiar with. It's nice to be able to trust an author that much.

There is an extensive bibliography, written in a very readable style, with lots of ideas for further exploration of the topic.

Highly recommended.

[Christine Sunderland · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent survey of Heaven in literature.
Used for research on my novel ANGEL MOUNTAIN to be published this year by Wipf and Stock Publishers.

[Anjanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very intriguing look at the images of heaven and hell in the western literary tradition. It takes the reader through Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Milton and others explaining the various tropes originating in these writers that we can see in modern literature. I had the good fortune to be able to attend a book signing/lecture Dr. Markos gave on the topic and he's really fascinating. Like this lecture, the book is remarkably easy to understand - it is not a dry, academic treatise on literature and mythology, but, like Dr. Markos himself, very engaging. Note, though, that Dr. Markos is a Christian educator and his writing takes for granted Christian beliefs. If you have a problem with that, you might not enjoy reading this, but that is your loss.