To theAncient Greeks , the Scheol was a strong-arm place that could be get at by intrepid people if only they sleep together where to calculate . From Homer ’s epic tarradiddle to the locomotion writers , classical stories are fill with references to such entry where epic individual ventured into the subterranean world of the dead . Today , one of these " gateways to Hell " is still accessible to the living and is located at the lead of the Greek mainland .
The caves at Cape Matapan , also fuck as Tenaro or Cape Tainaron , lie at the remnant of theMani peninsulain Greece . The entrance to the cave is located at ocean layer and leads into chambers under the drop face ; the exact location seems to be marked by the ruins of a ascetic tabernacle on top of the drop . Although the Ancient Greeks believe in several dissimilar entrances to theunderworld , which they called “ Hades ” after the chthonic god , this is the most famous .
According to Classical mythology , the souls of the dead ( at least those who received a correct burial ) were ship to the House of Hades by Charon , an otherworldly ferryman who traveled along the river Styx .
In Homer ’s epic poetry , theIliadand theOdyssey , the infernal region was a obscure faint expanse where the dead – peasants , nobles , submarine , and kings alike – survive as pathetic flittering and squawking shades in a state of what can only be described as perpetual ennui . In later accounts , descriptions of the ancient underworld become more elaborated and involved the soul of the idle , once they arrived in the House of Hades , being judged and sent to either Tartarus or , in rare instances , the nirvana of Elysium .
In Greek mythology , when Orpheus , the fabled hero with superhuman musical endowment , travel to Hades to rescue his dear Eurydice , it is said he come about through the caves at Cape Matapan . Tragically , Orpheus was secretive to think his married woman from the land of the dead with permit from Hades and Persephone , but , despite their warning , he turned to look at her before they had reached the upper world , which caused her to disappear constantly .
likewise , Heracles ( Hercules ) , the demigod boy of Zeus , is tell to have traveled through these cave to fetch Cerberus , the multiheaded guard hotdog , as one of his 12 labors . These trials were set for him as a religious rite of atonement for killing his wife and children while in a DoS of madness generate by Hera ( they impart that part out of the Disney movie ) .
In the second hundred CE , the travel writer and geographer Pausaniaswrote :
“ In the fold of the seaboard one come , first , to a foreland that projects into the sea , Taenarum , with its temple of Poseidon situated in a grove ; and secondly , near by , to the cavern through which , concord to the myth - writers , Cerberus was brought up from Hades by Heracles . ”
The expanse fence in the peninsula is also significant in its own rightfield , without mention of the portal site to Hell resting below its drop . To the Spartans , it was a extremely significant place for adoration . They rear temples to various gods along the headland , including a famous temple dedicated to Poseidon , the immortal of the ocean .
harmonize to Pausanias , the poet Arion was kidnapped by plagiariser while travel from Italy to Greece . In an endeavor to get off captivity , Arion confound himself into the sea and sung a song to Apollo , the god of poetry , who send a pod of mahimahi to write him . They carry him to shoring where he ended up at Cape Matapan and the chancel of Poseidon .
The situation is still used for religious armed service today , but it has long been converted for Christian adoration . Visitorsto the area can see a declamatory bronze statue in the similitude of Arion and , if they are brave enough ( and in possession of a boat ) , they can get at the Hell Gate below .
