harrowing of hell

plural harrowings of hell · alternative harrying of hell

1. human sciencesA raid into the underworld by a heroic figure.

   […] the Hero Twins go on to defeat Xibalba and its ghastly denizens, a true Harrowing of Hell.

   2007, Sophie & Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate, page 39

   2 more examples

   Not the direct vision of the harrowings of hell as reported, for example, by many Christian visionaries, but accounts given by the departed souls themselves are more frequent and typical features of Jewish moralist writing.

   1977, Raphael Werblowsky, Joseph Karo: lawyer and mystic, 2nd edition, page 44

   Of the four harrowings of hell that are cornerstones of Western literature […], we can eliminate the oldest.

   2003, Robert J. Andreach, Drawing upon the Past: Classical Theatre in the Contemporary American Theatre, page 36

1. ChristianityChrist's freeing from the underworld of those souls of the dead who were to go to Heaven.

   The source of the Harrowing of Hell tradition is, of course, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the oldest manuscripts of which date back to the fifth century, and that work was tremendously popular in England from the earliest days of Christianity there.

   1991, M. B. McNamee, “Beowulf-An Allegory of Salvation?”, in Robert D. Fulk, editor, Interpretations of Beowulf, Indiana University Press, page 94