Dante, on the other hand, saw something more than shadow beyond the grave’s grasp. In The Odyssey and The Aeneid, the dead are depicted as mere shades or shadows of their former selves and the land of the dead as the land of shadows. We looked at how Homer and Virgil both perceived the spirits of the dead as being less substantial than their mortal selves had been. In last week’s essay I surveyed the manner in which three of the greatest poets – Homer, Virgil and Dante – dived and delved into the afterlife, asking and prompting probing questions about the destiny of the human soul. The damned get everything they want by just imagining it, which seems like “heaven,” which is why they don’t desire to leave. Lewis depicts Hell in “The Great Divorce” as the Grey City, a place where Pride is given enough rope and spends eternity hanging itself.
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