Where is Hell? „Infernus” in medieval visions of the world

The objective of the article is to present various inspirations and reasons for the formation of the medieval imagination of Hell being at the centre of the earth. There were many factors and literary sources that influenced the iconography and descriptions of Hell, such as — among others — cognitive functions related to associative systems, folklore, mystical visions, and Aristotelian syllogism. Beliefs were permeated with metaphorical thinking. To varying degrees, these inspirations had an impact on the representations of Hell in literature and the visual arts.
Medieval treatises on the world are full of illuminations presenting a geocentrical model of the universum. Hell is situated at the centre of the earth. It is the space that is furtherst from God, the angels and the saints who reside in the sphere of heaven located outside of the Aristotelian world. Numerous pictures of the Last Judgement show Hell underground. Dante followed this model in his work and described Hell as a concentric funnel into the earth.
Artworks and their literary inspirations allow for the making of certain general statements. In the Middle Ages the line between the natural and supernatural world was blurred. An invisible vertical axis originating in the dualism of medieval imaginations had become a determinant of space. The top was associated with God, nobility and everything sublime, whereas the bottom was seen as vulgar, impure and ungodly. This top-bottom relationship related to the functioning of humans in the gravitational domain. That is why there is an impact on associations and metaphors created by men. In this way this relationship became fundamental in perceiving the world and in communicating with other people. It is not suprising therefore that there were common religious visions of the dead existing underground. Nevertheless from an anthropological perspective these visions require explanation and their developments describing.
The article presents literary sources which discuss the question of the placement of Hell. Ancient culture plays an important part in providing not only literary visions, as in e.g. Homer’s Illiad or Virgil’s Aeneid, but also philosophical works by Plato and Aristotle. In particular Aristotle’s writings in which he described the inside of the earth spurred the imagination. Also important were The Dialogues by Gregory the Great and apocrypha and medieval visions of the afterlife. Other writings which can be associated with the visualisation of medieval Hell include Historia ecclesiastica gentis Angelorum by the Venerable Bede. Most of the authors assumed that Hell was underground and the entrance was either in Ireland — due to its northern location — or in Italy, in places with vulcanic activity like Sicilly or Campania.
Folk imagination of Hell was influenced by nature, especially volcanos in the southern region of Italy. Mountains with craters going deep under the earth’s surface and spouting fire added flames to the infernal visions. Other terrifying places invoking subconscious fear included crevices, caves and deep valleys.
Dante’s poem inspired artists for centuries. It influenced old masters such as Sandro Botticelli who, commissioned by Lorenzo Pietro Francesco de Medici, illustrated the Divine Comedy in the years 1482–1490. His drawing depicts a funnel going deep into the centre of earth with consecutive circles narrowing like shelves carved in rock. It is reminiscent of a reverse Tower of Babel built with great effort by its builders.
In 1986, Sebastiao Salgado, a Brasillian photoghraphy artist, made a reportage project documenting the inhuman work in the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brasil. For him a pit in the ground and suffering workers embodied hell. His poignant pictures resemble the vision from the frontispiece of the Divine Comedy by Botticelli. Similar medieval mines were probably also an inspiration for Dante and it can be assumed that he perceived people working in the mines as being condemned in Hell. Their hard labour in digging gold and their monotonous activites with no end brought about connotations of eternal suffering.
Hell located underground is a cultural code, rooted in human psychology and imagination probably since the beginning of the history of religion.