Great Works Of Literature

The Pillar of Fire (1950)

From Plato’s Phaedo:

When the dead arrive at the place to which each has been led by his guardian spirit (δαίμων), they are first judged as to whether they have led a good and pious life. Those who have lived an average life make their way to the Acheron and embark upon such vessels as there are for them and proceed to the lake. There they dwell and are purified by penalties for any wrongdoing they may have committed; they are also suitably rewarded for their good deeds as each deserves. (Grube 113d)

The Myth of Er from book ten of Plato’s Republic:

When Er describes the souls that were coming to that “marvellous place” (Grube and Reeve 614c), he says that “the souls who were arriving all the time seemed to have been on long journeys, so that they went gladly to the meadow, like a crowd going to a festival, and camped there” (Grube and Reeve 614e). Er listens to the souls exchange their stories with one another, and claims that the ones coming up from below were “weeping as they recalled all they had suffered and seen on their journey below the earth, which lasted a thousand years” (Grube and Reeve 615).

From Plato’s Phaedrus:

In the thousandth year [the souls] arrive at a choice and allotment of second lives, and each soul chooses the life it wants. (Nehamas and Woodruff 249b).

The Souls on Acheron (1860) by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl

The Damned Being Cast Into Hell

Hell – Unknown Master

The Last Judgment