Myths about Death. From the Islands of the Blessed and Omens to Devilish Knights and the Gift of Immortality

How do we "know" what awaits us "on the other side"? Paradoxically, often — from the stories of those who allegedly have seen and felt those places: in dreams, in sickness, on the brink of death. Or — from the... invented tales about these accounts: after all, one of the main themes of mythology, religion, and literature has always been the inevitability of death — and the unknown of what comes after it…

It is about such "visions" of the afterlife and the other world — or "journeys" to these worlds? — that philologist-medievalist, professor at Sorbonne Claude Lecouteux speaks in his book. It is based on a solid corpus of both well-known and rare sources: ancient traditions, theological treatises of the Middle Ages, chivalric romances, Icelandic sagas, folk tales, and testimonies of those who have experienced clinical death. Their "data" is very different — and very similar. Just as the attitude of people from different times and countries towards their own inevitable fate.

Which of the known stories of descent into hell is the oldest? Why can souls be colored in different shades? What does hell and paradise smell like? How do the "journeys" of Christian visionaries fundamentally differ from those of shamans? How was the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice reflected in medieval poems? And how are the stories of medieval mystics similar to accounts of near-death experiences?

"Myths about Death" is an impressive excursion into the world of afterlife visions, where myths, creativity, and contemporary scientific data collide.