As of November 24, 2007, material on Ancient Near Eastern, Zoroastrian, Egyptian, Hindu, and Asian/Buddhist and Judeo-Christian hell is available.
motifs used in otherworld descriptions:
• secret knowledge: when information is brought back from the otherworld of things that have not yet occured: “The Temporary King of Hell,” in Strange Stories from a Liaozhai Studio
• physical evidence: when the body of someone who visits hell bears the marks of physical punishment in the otherworld: “The Temporary King of Hell,” in Strange Stories from a Liaozhai Studio
• harrowings or general amnesty
• bridge: Voyage to the Western Sea of the Chief Eunuch San-Pao [San-pao t’ai-chien hsia hsi-yang chi] by Lo Mou-teng (Luo Moudeng) Taoist/Buddhist/Confucian [Chinese], 1597; hell of black rope has a rope walk between mountains with boiling cauldrons below — Essentials of Pure Land Rebirth [Ojo Yoshu] by Genshin [Monk Eshin] (942–1017 c.e.) (Buddhist [Japanese], 984).
