Highway to Hell

The concept of an afterlife has eluded almost all humans and the civilizations and cultures of which they are a part. We are intelligent enough to wonder what happens after life but cannot come up with a way to find out and come back to tell everyone—at least not a way that most people want to try in hopes of coming back to the land of the living. Most religions on Earth have some type of monopoly on the idea of the afterlife and try to tell followers about what happens after death and how to insure that this second life is a good and happy one. What about the “bad” people though? Human beings learned long ago that people can be bad, evil, and malicious without being punished on Earth for their crimes against humanity. To make these victims feel better, most of them like to believe in the idea that those who break cultural rules or deny the basic human rights of others are sent to a place where they will receive their eternal punishment for being such bad people while alive. In the Christianity of Western civilization, this place which collects and jails wrongdoers for eternity is known as “hell.” Yet, Christians were certainly not the first ones to come up with the thought that there was a place which was strictly reserved for those who did wrong in life but did not repent or correct their ways. Countless societies and religions all over the world have their own idea of a place where people are judged upon their deaths to pay for sins or evils during their time on Earth. Let’s go down the “Highway to Hell” and see what other mythological places exist to punish malevolent mortals.