For the Greeks, this is just one aspects of life after death.. In some sense it seems more closely associated with the Christian idea of limbo. Heaven has its counterpart in the Elysian fields. In the Inferno hell is again representing the subconscious, but in it's more visceral and active and judgmental aspect. In general the "nature" of man to be violent, deceiving, etc. is found in hell in varying degrees. Yet one has some pity for many of its inhabitants, the same as in the Odyssey.
But why these visions of gods and hell by these authors? Jung points out that the introversion necessary to look within is the common factor:
The visionary phenomena, produced in the first stages of introversion, are grouped among the well-known phenomena of hypnagogic vision. They form, as I explained in an earlier paper, the foundation of the true visions of the symbolic autorevelations of the libido, as we may now express it. (Jung 197)
So, in mythology in all its aspects we find these "autorevelations," the spontaneous creativity of the libido and psyche of the author creates, often unawares, the vision of truth and the need for knowledge that is absent. The wandering of the hero is also symbolic of an unsatisfied need that the soul yearns for.
In one sense this journey is the quest for unification of the earthly side of human beings with the spiritual side of the universe. "The Ultimate adventure, when all barriers and ogres have been overcome, is commonly represented as the mystical marriage of the triumphant hero-soul with the queen goddess of the world" (Campbell 109). Beatrice as well as the Virgin represents this in the Inferno as Athena does in the Odyssey. It is often not a physical marriage but a spiritual merging of the two forces. In gender sense it may also be perceived as the bisexuality of the spirit, allowing the anima and the animas to converge (Jung).
Life's destiny and the hero's quest are often one and the same. After being gone for over twenty years, Odysseus returns home. Here he becomes the rejuvenator of Ithaca, which has been plagued by having no strong ruler. Furthermore, dozens of suitors have made a shambles of the city and the palace.
In his travels he has encountered seductive nymphs, cannibal monsters,...
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