The Encyclopedia of Hell by Miriam Van Scott

Author:Miriam Van Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781466891197
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

The Jaws of Hell, from a 1568 French manuscript. ART TODAY

The concept of the hellmouth most probably originates from legends about huge sea monsters that had the power to destroy ships and swallow entire armies. These mythic beasts derived in part from tales about sailors mistaking whales for islands and hooking their anchors to them during storms. When the whale swam away, it dragged the tethered ship and its helpless crew to the ocean depths. Storytellers claimed that this was done on purpose by the evil and cunning “water demons” who kept the lost sailors in a dismal kingdom at the bottom of the sea. Thus the open mouth of the whale quickly became synonymous with the gates of hell.

Since few artists had ever seen a whale, they portrayed the unknown ocean creature as a dragon or a huge fish with razor-sharp teeth. Its enormous mouth represented horrible death and unspeakable agony. This conceptualized underworld appears in illustrations from both Eastern and Western cultures, although the idea of the hellmouth became especially popular in Western belief systems.

The Old Testament story of Jonah, a reluctant prophet who is swallowed by a whale and then expelled after agreeing to obey God’s orders, reinforced the view of the hellmouth as a diabolical means of punishment. Later, Christians equated Jonah’s three days in the belly of the whale with Christ’s three days in the tomb between his crucifixion and resurrection, and the redemption of Jonah with the harrowing of hell. Tales of the impending apocalypse include a “Great Beast” who rises from the sea to terrorize humankind. This solidified the place of the infernal maw in Christian tradition.

During the Middle Ages, the hellmouth became an important part of MORALITY PLAYS and MYSTERY PLAYS. These dramas, designed to teach moral lessons and offer harsh warnings about the agonies of the underworld, used it to represent damnation. In the plays, which focused on such biblical themes as the harrowing of hell and the LAST JUDGMENT, the hellmouth was an important piece of scenery. The most elaborate of these were actual hinged doors decorated with painted (or even sculpted) jaws that could open and close according to the action of the play. Sinners were cast into it; the saved were yanked out. Lavish productions included smoke, stench, and shrieks that spewed forth from the hellmouth to heighten the excitement. Eventually, scenes involving the gaping grimace became the most popular part of the dramatic presentations, an early form of theatrical special effects.

The hellmouth is also commonplace in Christian art, becoming a popular characteristic of Christian CHURCH ART AND ARCHITECTURE. Versions of the enduring symbol appear in paintings and sculptures throughout Christendom and adorn the pages of numerous BOOKS OF HOURS.

HELLRAISER CLIVE BARKER’s 1987 film Hellraiser, based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, explores the nightmarish world of the damned, offering a host of innovative infernal creatures. And unlike other contemporary films about portals to hell—such as THE GATE and THE SENTINEL—the passageway to the underworld is not a fixed location but a portable doorway that can be accessed anywhere.

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