Hades

The motif of ancient beliefs about afterlife and contemporary idea of them appears increasingly in contemporary works directed to young audience. The combination of mythology and history known from ancient sources and popular culture works is essential for reception studies. The paper presents three cases of transformation of characters connected with ancient beliefs about afterlife as protagonists or villains in works directed to youth; Hades as a villain known from Disney’s works, especially Hercules; Persephone and Hades’s love story in three web comics: Underworld Love Story and Hades & Persephone Shorts by Gau Meo and Hades’ Holiday by Elvishness; and the way the Cleopatra VII Philopator’s image in Scooby Doo! in Where’s My Mummy? is different than others representations of the queen.

«Non v'è salvezza al di fuori del mostruoso»; «la diserzione, intrinseca alla letteratura, diventa nel fantastico sfida blasfema, obiezione, tradimento»: in questi passi, lo scrittore italiano Giorgio Manganelli (1922-1990) riafferma la portata trasgressiva della sua opera, indicando nel superamento dei limiti razionali, del verosimile, dell'accettabile o, in altre parole, del narrabile la via per sottrarre la letteratura ad una funzione strumentale. Così, nel privilegiarla come atto di linguaggio e nel disimpegnarla da mansioni mimetico-realistiche, Manganelli la popola di esseri informi e metamorfici. Ad esempio, in opere quali 'Hilarotragoedia' (1964) e 'Dall'inferno' (1985) il mostruoso non si presenta come qualcosa di aberrante, ma piuttosto come il risultato di una sorta di teologia paradossale, in grado di sovvertire o burlare le grandi convenzioni umane. Partendo da tali questioni, l'articolo affronterà il tema del mostro quale infrazione e sovversione essenziali allo scardinamento di un orizzonte ermeneutico antropocentrico, come voleva, tra gli altri, Foucault.

On January 29, 2016 a Greek Hellenistic terracotta polycrome head representing Hades has been repatriated to Sicily from United States of America. In 2013 the J.P. Getty Museum announced the ‘voluntary’ return of the sculpture, after having verified its illicit provenance.
In the Getty collection since 1985, the terracotta head was stolen in the late Seventies from Morgantina, the archaeological site in Sicily famous all over the world because of other important returns of stolen goods from USA: the archaic acroliths in Tempelsman collection (2009), the silver treasure in the collection of MET in NY (2010) and the ‘Getty Aphrodite’ (2011).
The Getty Hades head was related to Morgantina after a research published in 2007 about some Greek terracotta votives in Aidone Archaeological Museum, where a little blue painted curl of Hades beard in the Getty collection was housed. So this blue curl in Aidone allowed to claim the repatriation of the head from USA.
My presentation will focus on Hades’head history, from the theft to the return to Italy, considering that at the moment this event is in the spotlight of international press and scientific community.

Traduction 2004 révisée:

Jacques Aubert (Télémaque), Pascal Bataillard (Protée, Lotophages, Eumée), Michel Cusin (Nestor), Sylvie Doizelet (Charybde et Scylla), Patrick Drevet (Hadès, Nausicaa), Bernard Hoepffner (Eole, Circé, Ithaque), Thiphaine Samoyault (Les Sirènes, Les Lestrygons, Le Cyclope, Pénélope), Marie-Danièle Vors (Calypso)

La traduction des Boeufs du Soleil par Auguste Morel (suivant la formule consacrée au moment de cette première traduction en 1929: avec Stuart Gilbert et Valéry Larbaud, traduction revue par l'auteur) a été conservée avec des révisions.

Appareil critique:

Jaques Aubert (Télémaque, Eole, Les Boeufs du Soleil, Circé, Ithaque), Pascal Bataillard et Michel Cusin (Nestor, Hadès, Nausicaa), Daniel Ferrer (Les Sirènes), Jean-Michel Rabaté (Charybde et Scylla, Pénélope), André Topia (Protée, Les Lotophages, Le Cyclope) et Marie-Danièle Vors (Calypso, Les Lestrygons, Les Rochers errants, Eumée)

Le sort de l’homme après la mort… Voilà donc un sujet sur lequel on s’interroge au moins une fois dans sa vie. Qu’est-ce qui attend l’homme après sa mort ? A-t-on vraiment tout imaginé ? L’homme tente-t-il de se donner bonne conscience ? A-t-on inventé l’histoire d’une vie après la mort dans l’objectif de mieux vivre son deuil avec l’espoir de revoir la personne que l’on a perdue dans un nouvel avenir ? Ou bien a-t-on nié l’existence d’une destination future dans l’espoir d’échapper aux conséquences de nos choix terrestres ?
L’Histoire de l’humanité est liée à la théologie de la même manière que l’histoire de la théologie est liée à celle de l’humanité. Voilà pourquoi certaines idées sont ancrées dans le patrimoine culturel ; et ainsi, que chacun le veuille ou non, il s’y trouve des concepts que la société ne peut effacer.
Voilà pourquoi la question du sort de l’homme après sa mort reste encore et toujours d’actualité. Nous comprenons qu’il est nécessaire de creuser la question, afin de discerner la pensée biblique de la tradition historique, et c’est dans ce brouillard informationnel que nous devons discerner l’esquisse de ce tableau biblique.
La question à laquelle ce travail de recherche veut répondre est celle-ci :
« Après des siècles d’histoire du christianisme, dans un monde en constante évolution, comment devons-nous comprendre la conception de la vie après la mort, suite à tous ces siècles d’histoires et d’influences de la part de l’Eglise sur la culture occidentale ? Que nous dit réellement la Bible finalement, quand nous faisons face à tant d’interprétations autant contradictoires les unes que les autres ? »

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
"""

The motif of the innocent maiden who is rescued from the underworld of the dead is codified in the Greek myth of Persephone, the desirable daughter of Zeus and of harvest-goddess Demeter. Persephone is often known simply as “the Maiden” (Greek Korē, Latin Cora). With Zeus’s tacit consent, Persephone was abducted by his brother Hades to become the queen of his subterranean kingdom of death, but pined for her former happy existence among the living, to which she was ultimately (albeit conditionally) restored. The myth provides an allegorical explanation for the seasons. The relevance of the Maiden’s return from the dead to the raising of Jairus’s daughter (korasion, “Little Korē”) by Jesus in Mark 5:25-34 was identified in 2001 by Roy Kotansky. Here, I suggest some additional possibilities. A hitherto baffling search-and-capture mission for “the maiden” that was undertaken in Eastern lands by the Tuatha Dé Danann – the major pantheon of the Irish Mythological Cycle – could well be a refraction of Persephone’s abduction and her mother’s agonized search for her. A charismatic historical personage known in her own time as la Pucelle, “the Maid,” but better known to us as Joan of Arc, also suffered capture and imprisonment. In fulfillment of mythic expectation, her execution in 1431 was followed a few years later by the appearance of a resurrected Joan, whose authenticity was widely attested. Like Demeter, it was Joan’s mother who triggered her daughter’s eventual redemption. The motif of the virtuous maiden trapped in a shadowy underworld from which she is eventually rescued persists in modern fiction, where its ancient roots are sometimes successfully obscured by a futuristic veneer. For example, in the blockbuster science fiction movie Tron: Legacy (2010), the young digital heroine Quorra (cf. Korē) – who longs for a human life in the warmth of the sun – overcomes a betrayal by the powerful algorithm Zuse (cf. Zeus) and brings new hope to the world with her liberation from the dark and chilling confines of the electronic universe known as “the Grid.”

The concept of the Greek Underworld, or Hades, has been used by many writers as a tool for conveying such emotions as torment, grief, and hopelessness. The Greek Underworld is traditionally viewed as a dismal place in which dead souls have no choice but to reside. The Underworld was strongly feared by those of Classical society and often utilized by writers of contemporary poetry who have sought to analogize the idea suffering to the broad concept of Hades. Examining the Classical works of Homer and Virgil, and the work of female poets Sylvia Plath, Rachel Zucker, and Hilda Doolittle, this paper analyzes the importance of the Underworld in contemporary female poetry with particular regard to the conveyance of such themes as torment, grief, and suffering. This analysis will highlight the connection between the Greek Underworld of Classical literary tradition and the Underworld which features prominently in works of contemporary female poetry, in particular.

This article offers a close reading of Yannis Ritsos’s dramatic monologue ‘Persephone’ (1972) and argues for the need to adopt a gender-sensitive perspective on Ritsos’s work, one that will do justice to his politics but that will also take on board the gendered imaginary and discourse he draws and depends on. ‘Persephone’ forms part of Ritsos’s wide-ranging engagement with classical myth in most of his mature writing, where gender and political issues are firmly intertwined or even serve as a metaphor for one another. In my reading of the poem, I argue that ‘Persephone’ dramatizes a female’s Oedipal momentum on her road towards individuation and social connectedness within the rigid framework of both the Greek military junta (1967-1974) and the post-Stalinist era. Engaging a psychoanalytic feminist framework enables us to involve the Lacanian legacy regarding the role that language primarily plays in the formation of subjectivity. I focus more particularly on the theoretical perspective of Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva, both of whom place classical myth at the centre of their explorations of the modern subject. Despite their fundamentally disparate projects, they both draw on Lacan’s reading of Freud in order to give rise to a fundamental change in the realm of the Symbolic. To view, then, Persephone as an Oedipal subject provides an excellent resource for exploring the heroine’s attempt to define herself as a woman, as a citizen, as a Greek, and as a human being, within a complex web of power and discursive realities.

Humanity's Relationship to the Spirit Realm of Fallen Angels - To understand the beast and other characters of Revelation, we need to revisit Genesis 6 to see how fallen angels will affect the end times.There are 3 dominant views regarding this famous Genesis 6 passage about the Sons of God. Most Bible interpreters and commentators state that the godly children of Seth are the Sons of God marrying outside the faith, or that fallen angels mated with human women to produce giant offspring. We will expound our focus with a 3rd viewpoint while coordinating related biblical passages and mythology.

In this article we will examine biblical usage of Hades as Sheol terminology in association with the afterlife. We will also compare the differences of soul to spirit meanings. Each of these terms have unique life and death relationships within our living realm and in the realm of the dead.

We will examine literal interpretations and figurative renderings of the Bible in terms of life and death in our present condition compared to life and death descriptions in the afterlife. Our language used in the earthly realm often needs to be figurative in order to describe something literal in another realm.

After we consider these relationships, we will be better able to understand complex scenarios such as death in the afterlife (i.e. the death of life that the Bible states as the second death).

Please download the PDF file for use of hyperlinks to references.

The article focuses on the topic of Greek and Roman influences on His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. The author presents the ancient origins of several motifs of the trilogy, for example compares the daemon from His Dark Materials to the ancient daimon, Lyra’s dream in a cave to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the Pullman’s vision of the Underworld to Greek Hades, and the Subtle Knife to the golden bough. She also tries to understand the function of the Greek and Roman elements in the trilogy. Finally, the author ponders if the vision of ancient culture in His Dark Materials can influence its reception in the future.

The motif of ancient beliefs about the afterlife and their present-day understanding appears increasingly in contemporary works directed to young audiences. The combination of mythology and history from ancient sources and popular culture works is fundamental for reception studies. The paper presents three cases of transformation of characters connected with ancient beliefs about the afterlife as protagonists in works directed to the youth: Hades as a villain from Disney’s works, especially Hercules; Persephone and Hades’s love story in three webcomics: Underworld Love Story and Hades & Persephone Shorts by Gau Meo and Hades’ Holiday by Elvishness; and the way Cleopatra VII Philopator’s image in Scooby-Doo! in Where’s My Mummy? differs from the usual representations of the queen.

Refrigerium, a vulgarism of refrigeratio, was used by some early Christians to refer to the practice of holding a feast in honor of the dead. This use of the language was not directly borrowed from pagan culture, but developed out of a Christian matrix of thought and behavior that responded to early Jewish views of the afterlife, gnostic thought, and pagan customs of holding graveside feasts.

La ponencia analiza el motivo mítico del viaje al inframundo en varios autores de la literatura greco-latina. En primer
lugar, se repasan los antecedentes históricos de la concepción griega de la vida después de la muerte. En segundo
lugar, se estudia la figura del héroe en el mito del descensus ad inferos, en tres apartados: (1) la búsqueda (Odiseo,
Eneas y Parménides); (2) el enfrentamiento físico (Heracles, Teseo, Alcestis y Dionisos); y (3) el enfrentamiento
verbal (Pólux, Perséfone y Orfeo). Finalmente, se esboza, a partir de la comparación de los diferentes mitos y de la
evidencia de las prácticas rituales, una noción de la katábasis como categoría mítica.

Resumen
En varios tratados Filón emplea las imágenes del Hades, la región de los
impíos, el Tártaro y los castigos eternos de Tántalo y de Sísifo como símbolos de la degradación moral a la que llega todo aquel que se entrega a las pasiones. Esos lugares, que para Filón carecen de existencia, representan el estado de muerte, oscuridad y sufrimiento de los malvados, que no serán castigados tras su muerte, sino que se castigan a sí mismos con su vida licenciosa, que solo conduce a la infelicidad. En este trabajo trataremos de rastrear las posibles fuentes de los pasajes de Filón, que presentan similitudes con el Gorgias de Platón (492a-493c), pero sobre todo con textos epicúreos, especialmente Sobre la naturaleza de las cosas de Lucrecio (3.978-979 y 1018-1023), donde se interpreta a los condenados míticos como imagen de los dominados por pasiones inútiles.

Abstract
In several treatises, Philo employs the images of Hades, the region of the
impious, the Tartarus and the eternal punishments of Tantalus and Sisyphus as symbols of the moral debasement to which all who indulge their passions arrives. These places, which do not exist in Philo’s view, represent the state of death, darkness and suffering of the wicked, who will not be punished after their death, but rather punish themselves through their licentious life, which leads only to unhappiness. In this paper we will try to track the possible sources of Philo’s passages, which are similar to Plato’s Gorgias (492a-493c), but above all to Epicurean texts, especially Lucretius’ The nature of things (3.978-979 and 1018-1023), where the mythical damned are interpreted as an image of those dominated by useless passions.

For the interpretation of mythological subjects In the Roman funerary art the author systematically applies the analysis of the Key of Dreams by Artemidorus of Daldis, Greek author of the Antonine period. The funerary art was studied before by F. Cumont and A.D. Nock, and they both discussed also some dreams chosen from the manual of Artemidorus. The comparison of the principles of the analysis of dreams (mental images) with the principles that we encounter in the iconography gives interesting results. This approach has never previously been attempted. To support his argument, the author studies not only numerous decorated sarcophagi but also a series of funerary inscriptions.

Abstract: Two peripatetic authors from the 3rd century BC, Hieronymus of Rhodes and Hermippus of Smyrna, each offer testimonies of Pythagoras’ catabasis. The first refers to Pythagoras’ observation of souls punished in Hades, while the second upholds the view that the entire experience was false, and that he in fact remained concealed in an underground chamber.
An older version of Hermippus’ story appears to be the source of a similar account on Zalmoxis recorded by Herodotus and of a brief allusion in Sophocles’ Electra. There are several testimonies of Pythagoras’ and Epimenides’ using caves to achieve spiritual experiences and attain a divine knowledge, which could be the starting point of the story of the Samian master’s descent to the Hades, later denounced as a fraud. The stimulus to transform the sojourn in a cave into a catabasis may have been competition between the Pythagoreans and the Orphics, and the desire to attribute to the sect’s founder, Pythagoras, equivalent authority to Orpheus regarding the afterlife.
Key words: Pythagoras, Pythagoreanism, catabasis, eschatology, incubatio, Zalmoxis, Epimenides, Orpheus.
Resumen: Dos autores peripatéticos del s. III a. C., Jerónimo de Rodas y Hermipo de Esmirna, ofrecen sendos testimonios sobre la catábasis de Pitágoras. El primero se refiere a los castigados
en el Hades que Pitágoras contempló y el segundo asegura que la experiencia fue un fraude, ya que permaneció escondido en una cámara subterránea. Una versión más antigua de la historia de
Hermipo parece ser la base de un relato similar sobre Zalmoxis recogido por Heródoto y de una breve alusión en la Electra de Sófocles. Existen varias noticias sobre el uso que Pitágoras y
Epiménides hacían de las cuevas para tener experiencias espirituales y alcanzar un conocimiento divino, lo que pudo ser el punto de partida de la historia sobre el descenso al Hades del maestro de Samos, luego denunciada como un fraude. El catalizador para transformar en catábasis la estancia en una cueva pudo ser la competencia de los pitagóricos con los órficos y el deseo de atribuir al fundador de la secta, Pitágoras, la misma autoridad que Orfeo en lo referente al Más Allá.
Palabras clave: Pitágoras, pitagorismo, catábasis, escatología, incubatio, Zalmoxis, Epiménides, Orfeo.

This thesis seeks to engage with modern receptions of Hades, the ancient god of the underworld, within the medium of film. Although reception studies encompasses a broad variety of themes and subject matters, filmic characterisation (especially that of a deity) is presently an under-represented topic. Hades’ unique persona provides further incentive for this study; not only does he hold an ambiguous position within antiquity but this is similarly echoed throughout much of Hollywood’s own history, up until the turn of the 21st century. Hades’ filmic persona has, however, received a revitalisation within modern blockbusters which draw their inspiration from ancient Greek mythology. With prominent appearances in the likes of Disney’s Hercules (1997), Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2010), Clash of the Titans (2010) and Wrath of the Titans (2012), Hades has now become a staple character within the film industry.  Hades’ recent stardom is not without issues. It appears that mass c...

Abstract. Il rapporto tra Orfeo e Cornelio Gallo, suggerito da Servio, consente di cercare tracce del poeta elegiaco dietro le presenze del cantore mitico in poesia augustea. Nell’Eneide, in Orazio, Properzio e Ovidio, oltre che nel poemetto delle Georgiche, gli studiosi moderni hanno talora intravvisto l’immagine di Gallo e accenni alla sua poesia o alla sua morte.

Parole-chiave: Orfeo; Gallo; poesia augustea.

Abstract. The relationship between Orpheus and Cornelius Gallus, suggested by Servius, allows to search for traces of the elegiac poet behind the legendary singer in Augustan poetry. In the Aeneid, in Horace, in Propertius and in Ovid, and of course in the epyllion of the Georgics, modern scholars have sometimes glimpsed the image of Gallus and hints to his poetry or his death.

Key-words: Orpheus; Gallus; Augustan poetry.

Con un comunicato stampa sulle pagine del Los Angeles
Times, il 10 Gennaio 2013 il J. Paul Getty Museum annunciava
ufficialmente al mondo la restituzione “volontaria”
alla Sicilia di una testa di terracotta di dimensioni
pari al vero di età ellenistica raffigurante una divinità
barbuta, probabilmente il dio greco degli Inferi Ade. Grazie ad una pubblicazione scientifica a cura della scrivente
edita nel 2007 e ad ulteriori indizi recuperati più di
recente al Museo Archeologico di Aidone è stato possibile
attribuire il pregevolissimo reperto a Morgantina e
avanzarne richiesta formale di restituzione al Getty Museum,
che verificatane la legittimità ha immediatamente
risposto favorevolmente disponendo la restituzione
“volontaria” della testa, ormai prossima al rientro in Italia.

""The author analyses the mythological subjects known from the funerary paintings of the Near East. He is interested principally in the meaning and the message which these representations conveyed. He studies the interpretative problems of funerary iconography in terms of the principles that we encounter in the iconography of roman art - principles which are confirmed by Artemidorus of Ephesus (or Artemidorus of Daldis), a Greek author of the Antonine period, in his manuel Key to Dreams (Onirocriticon). This approach has never previously been attempted. To support his argument, he refers to numerouse monuments of funerary art as well as to a series of inscriptions adorning the monuments in Roman necrpoleis.

L’auteur analyse les sujets mythologiques connus de la peinture funéraire au Proche-Orient. Il s’intéresse principalement au sens et au message que ces représentations portaient. Il étudie la problématique de la sémantique de l’iconographie funéraire en fonction des principes qu’on retrouve dans l’iconographie plastique et qu’Artémidore d’Ephese (soit Artémidore de Daldis), auteur grec de l’époque antonine, confirme dans son manuel La clef de songes (Onirocriticon). Cette démarche n’avait jusqu’alors, jamais été entreprise. Pour appuyer son raisonnement, l’auteur se réfère à des nombreux monuments d’art funéraire, ainsi qu’à une série d’inscriptions ornant des monuments des nécropoles romaines.
See also: M.T. Olszewski, Artémidore, mythologie et symbolique funéraire, Archeologia (Warsaw) 52, 2001, pp. 39-60.
M.T. Olszewski, Le statut de l'image selon Artémidore et l'art romain, in: Morlier, H. ed., IXe Colloque international pour l'étude de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Roma 5.11.2001-10.11.2001, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 352/2, Rome 2005, pp. 859-880.""

This paper hosts three case-studies that are meant to be representative of paradigm-shifting trends in Homeric Studies and to cater to specialists and non-specialists alike. Boosted by new archaeological findings and by an increased awareness of Homer’s Near-Eastern entanglements, the “historicity” of the poems has regained centre stage. Against this backdrop, Andrea Debiasi develops a persuasive interpretation of Homer’s name, whose meaning points to the performative-agonistic dimension of Homeric poetry in the context of the clashes that characterized Euboia in the archaic age. By contrast, George Gazis focuses on the one aspect of the Homeric world that cannot possibly be mapped onto space and history, namely Hades. The underworld is unfathomable even for the gods, which accounts for its potential as a trigger of poetic invention. No less than Debiasi’s, this approach resonates with recent scholarship: a return to “history” is often complemented by an opposite, but fully compatib...

This article encourages readers to press past recent debates on the nature of eschatological hell to examine those NT uses of gehenna and hades that cannot be interpreted as afterlife states. The author demonstrates how these texts—Jms. 3:6, Matt. 23:15 and Matt. 16:18—treat hell as a kingdom, present among us and within us.

The author suggests James’ use of gehenna may not in fact be a departure from Jesus’ use of the term, but instead, a cipher for interpreting him, given that James often functions as a commentary on Matthian Jesus-sayings (esp. the Sermon on the Mount).

The author also sees the importance of this ‘shadow-kingdom of hell’ motif as crucial to the church’s purpose and the believer’s spiritual formation, particularly as we locate and storm the gates of hades among us and within us.

The aim of the article is to show the figure of ancient god Hades as an important part of a Byzantine, symbolic representation of the Last Judgement using the example of the mosaic from the west wall of Basilica Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello, Italy. The article is divided into three main parts. The first one is a short introduction to the mosaic complex from Torcello and consists of a brief description of the place, the Basilica and the mosaic. In the second part, the author focuses on the fragment of the mosaic presenting the figure of Hades in hell. Wanting to show the iconographical and cultural continuity between ancient and early medieval representations, the author compares this figure to its ancient prototype. The last part of the article is dedicated to other chosen representations of the Last Judgement from the earlier and the same period (development of the motive). In conclusion the author tries to answer the question concerning possible meaning of the presence of Hades in the mosaic of Torcello.