For in that sleep of death what dreams may come? The end of life has
never meant the extinction of hope. People perpetually have yearned
for, and often been terrified by, continuance beyond the horizon of
mortality. Ranging across time and space, Philip Almond here takes his
readers on a remarkable journey to worlds both of torment and delight.
He travels to the banks of the Styx, where Charon the grizzled boatman
ferries a departing spirit across the river only if a gold obol is
first placed for payment on the tongue of its corpse. He transports us
to the legendary Isles of the Blessed, walks the hallowed ground of
the Elysian Fields and plumbs the murky depths of Tartarus, primordial
dungeon of the Titans. The pitiable souls of the damned are seen to
clog the soot-filled caverns of Lucifer even as the elect ascend to
Paradise. Including medieval fears for the fate of those consumed by
cannibals, early modern ideas about the Last Day and modern scientific
explorations of the domains of the dead, this first full treatment of
the afterlife in Western thought evokes many rich imaginings of
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and Limbo.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780857728951
Publisert
2016
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter