Life and Death
‹ 6 · Outline · 8 ›
7.Death and the hope of immortality
7a.Immortality of the soul and the life to come
See also: Immortality 8e
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 317–318Calypso offered to make him never know death or age; he refused.read · scan
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 60Life and death are opposites generated from one another, so the living come from the dead.read · scan
- p. 83Facing death, Socrates argues that believing in an afterlife does him good either way, sparing friends lamentation.read · scan
- p. 89Fear of death is reasonable for one lacking proof of the soul's survival.read · scan
Paul, The Second Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 520–521Groaning in the mortal body, longing to have mortality swallowed up by life.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 270He survives by killing those buried alive and finds an exit; he feels sure of life after death.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 344Whoever laments leaving mortal frailty for immortal life has not seen heavenly refreshmentread · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 314–315Divided soul distracted by carnal things; where love is, there is the self; a prelude to the desire for eternal life.read · scan
William Shakespeare, Songs and SonnetsVol. 40
- p. 281–282Body's brief lease ends in worms; the soul feeds on death and death is dead.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 300Lear thinks he is taken from the grave and Cordelia a soul in bliss.read · scan
John Donne, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 305–306Death is defied as not mighty; it is a slave to fate, chance and kings, only a short sleep before waking eternally.read · scan
George Herbert, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 341–343Day, rose and spring must die; only a virtuous soul lives on.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 119–121Polyeucte says he neither hates life nor courts the grave; he serves life freely but looks to higher service after death.read · scan
- p. 127–128Death gives life; earth's loss transformed to endless gain.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written During the Civil War and the Protectorate, 1642-1658Vol. 4
- p. 81–82Sonnet on a pious woman's death: earthly life is a load of death that severs us from true life; her soul goes to immortal rest.read · scan
Henry Vaughan, Beyond the Veil; The RetreatVol. 40
- p. 346–348Departed friends gone into light; Death a beauteous jewel of the just; mysteries beyond dust.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 150–151Notes the passing spirit does not threaten immortality; the evil leaven accompanies man till death; death as the beginning of eternal happiness.read · scan
- p. 199Moses sets before the people life and death, bidding them choose life by loving God.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 337Death consummates the soul's beatitude and begins the body's; fear only the death Christ feared.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 362Life would be misery without hope of life beyond.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 383Death is only crossing the world, as friends cross the seas; they live in one another.read · scan
Joseph Addison, The Vision of MirzaVol. 27
- p. 76–77Life gives the chance to earn a reward; death conveys one to happy existence.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Preface to Poems (1815)Vol. 39
- p. 299The arrangement follows the course of human life from childhood to old age, death, and immortality.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 595Birth as sleep and forgetting; the growing boy sees the prison-house closing.read · scan
- p. 678–680We go toward the silent tomb, yet through love, hope and faith feel we are greater than we know.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 26–27The just man shares God's immortality through justice; the soul's laws lie outside time, so immortality is tied to virtue.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 293Death does not dismiss us from duties; Marcus Antoninus says it is pleasant to die if there be gods.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 286–287Paradise is described as a place where death never comes.read · scan
- p. 287–288The Prince calls the icy cave the way of death to Paradise; passage through mortuary-like chapels leads to a blessed place.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1276–1278No flock without a dead lamb; there is no Death, only transition to the life elysianread · scan
- p. 1333Gray streaks mark the dawn of another life breaking over her earthly horizon.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1110Sleep to wake: death is only a sleep before renewed striving.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1380Life seems a puppet's jest ending in the grave, yet something in man claims permanence beyond death.read · scan
7b.Resurrection and Christ's victory over death
See also: Theology 5b · Immortality 7c · Sin 9b · Angel 4b
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 260Hippolytus restored to life by Diana, then hidden from Jove's wrath.read · scan
Paul, The First Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 511–512Through Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive; death is the last enemy to be abolished.read · scan
- p. 512Dying daily, the seed that must die to be quickened; death answered by resurrection life.read · scan
- p. 513–514Death swallowed up in victory; taunt 'O death, where is thy sting?'read · scan
Paul, The Second Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 516–517Paul despaired of life, felt the sentence of death, trusting God who raises the dead.read · scan
- p. 519–520Bearing the dying of Jesus in the body so his life is manifested; outward man decays, inward renewed.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 371Jesus raises the widow's only son from the dead and gives him back to his mother.read · scan
- p. 376–377Jesus raises Jairus' daughter, saying she sleeps; her spirit returns and she rises.read · scan
- p. 378Whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake saves it; Jesus foretells his suffering, death and resurrection.read · scan
- p. 416Burial and resurrection from death.read · scan
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 423Jesus shows himself alive after his passion by many proofs over forty days.read · scan
- p. 443–444Tabitha dies and Peter, praying, raises her alive, causing many in Joppa to believe.read · scan
- p. 445–446Peter proclaims Jesus's death, resurrection on the third day, and appointment as Judge of the living and the dead.read · scan
- p. 467Eutychus falls from a window and is taken up dead; Paul embraces him and declares his life is in him.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 55Christ's abundant life slew our death so that mortal flesh might not be forever mortal.read · scan
- p. 72Fever brings him near death, and the death of his soul is set against the reality of Christ's bodily death.read · scan
- p. 144Death is swallowed up in victory; he lays himself down in peace and sleep.read · scan
- p. 195–196The wages of sin is death, which the false mediator shares with men.read · scan
- p. 196–197Christ conquers death, laying down and taking up his life.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 885God creates man, kills him, lays him in the tomb and raises him again.read · scan
- p. 890–891The dying soul rises to the throat; God creates and can revive the dead.read · scan
- p. 895Skeptics ask whether dust and bones can be raised; the answer is that all will be gathered.read · scan
- p. 909–910Peace upon the day he is born, dies and is raised alive.read · scan
- p. 953–954Jesus heals the blind and lepers and raises the dead by God's permission; God will cause him to die and take him up.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 312–313Earthly labor is brief; death will be destroyed and eternal life awaits, worth every affliction; deliverance from the body of this death.read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35
- p. 192–194The hart's renewal in old age is likened to Christ's return from death to life.read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 358–359Faith scoffs at death and grave, since Christ's victory over death becomes the believer's own.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 91–92Death is a long dark night covering us till the world ends, when glorified bodies rise.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15
- p. 408Herbert awaits death, when this mortal shall put on immortality; flesh is weak but spirit willing.read · scan
- p. 416He says he has conflicted with his last enemy, death, and overcome him through Jesus.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 94–95Polyeucte calls death the gate of enduring life and martyrdom a crown.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4
- p. 23–25Christ, the perfect hero, abides the stroke of death and lies in the sepulchre.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 40–42Mankind lost in death until Christ's sacrifice.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 136The Son offers his life for Man, foretells death's defeat and his rising victorious over the grave.read · scan
- p. 342Christ's death and resurrection defeat Sin and Death; death becomes like sleep, a gentle wafting to immortal life.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 175Apart from Christ we do not know what our life or death is.read · scan
- p. 176Meditation on Christ's burial: dead yet hidden in the sepulchre, where He takes new life.read · scan
- p. 177–178Jesus fears death yet goes forward to offer Himself to it.read · scan
- p. 226Christ destroys death through death.read · scan
- p. 271–272Christ's victory over death is announced.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 333–334Sacrifice completed by death and followed by resurrection into glory.read · scan
- p. 338Bodily death and resurrection explained as God's arrangement so men obey not from love of liferead · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 379A dead man returning to life is the paradigm miracle since never observed, unlike sudden death.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 36–38Christ's victory over death is sung; Faust is recalled to life: 'Earth, I am thine again'.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 62–63John dies and becomes stone; can be restored by children's bloodread · scan
- p. 63John and the children are restored to life by bloodread · scan
- p. 73–74The drowned queen returns as a spirit and is restored to life, strong and healthy.read · scan
- p. 152–153Snow-white lies unchanged in a glass coffin, then revives when the poisoned apple piece is dislodged.read · scan
7c.Rebirth, transmigration and release from death
See also: Desire 4c · Religion 14d · Immortality 6b · Charity 8b
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 59The living are said to come from the dead by the ancient doctrine.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 577–579Sumedha laments the misery of rebirth, old age, disease and death, and resolves to seek a state where no decay or death is known.read · scan
- p. 579–581The body is likened to a charnel-house, leaky ship, and robber to be cast off.read · scan
- p. 589–591Existence pauses its round of death and rebirth for a time; hell fires die out.read · scan
- p. 593–595Every mode of being is to be viewed as a prison from which one longs for release.read · scan
- p. 604–605Mortals forget birth, age and death when lives are extremely long.read · scan
- p. 606He dies in the Tusita heaven and is conceived in Maha-Maya's womb, rebirth as passage between existences.read · scan
- p. 608–609The mother dies at seven days and is reborn in heaven, since the womb, like a shrine, cannot be used again.read · scan
- p. 623–624The endless round of birth and rebirth is misery; the cycle is now ended.read · scan
- p. 625–626Birth conditions old age and death, sorrow and despair, and their cessation ends this misery.read · scan
- p. 644–645Subhadda knows rebirth is exhausted; the Buddha's approaching death prompts instruction to the disciples.read · scan
- p. 650–651Birth, old age, death, sorrow and despair are what the Buddha's teaching aims to extinguish.read · scan
- p. 657–658Buddha rejects both delight in existence and the wish for annihilation at death, as two heresies; the wise seek aversion to and cessation of existence.read · scan
- p. 661–662Birth leads to old age, death and sorrow.read · scan
- p. 669–670Deeds bear fruit in the present or a subsequent life.read · scan
- p. 675Death and rebirth in heaven and hell as results of deeds.read · scan
- p. 676At death everything is left behind, only deeds go with a man like a shadow.read · scan
- p. 688–689Heeding death's messengers and freeing oneself from attachment extinguishes birth and death and yields happiness.read · scan
- p. 706–707The frog dies, crushed by a cowherd, and is reborn as a god in heaven.read · scan
- p. 719–720Subject to birth, age, disease and death, he sees their wretchedness and seeks security free from them.read · scan
- p. 720–721Mankind plunged in sorrow, overwhelmed by old age and death.read · scan
- p. 726–727Subject to birth, age, disease and death, they seek release from rebirth.read · scan
- p. 771–772Conversion releases him from danger of rebirth in a lower state.read · scan
- p. 781Rebirth through worlds of gods and men links her successive lives.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 792–793Death is putting off worn garments for new ones; soul is invulnerable, birth and death alternate, so grief is unwarranted and death in duty is no evil.read · scan
- p. 820–822Those who seek refuge from birth and death know the truth; Arjuna asks how good men find Him at death.read · scan
- p. 823–825Those who reach the Lord taste birth no more; others roll back from death to life's unrest.read · scan
- p. 831–834Arjuna now knows whence is the birth and death of men.read · scan
- p. 851–853He who knows the soul is not reborn and overcomes death.read · scan
- p. 853–855The soul that passes beyond the three qualities overcomes birth, death, sorrow and age.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 98The sinner's burning to ashes and instant reforming is likened to the Phoenix's death and rebirth.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 285–286The Phoenix burns itself and is reborn from its egg every hundred years.read · scan
7d.Annihilation, sleep and the silence of the grave
Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8
- p. 147–148Shed blood cannot be undone; a man once dead shall rise no more, though chains can be loosed.read · scan
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 92–93Unlike a tree, man dies and does not rise; Job asks if a man die shall he live again.read · scan
- p. 95–97Job's spirit is consumed, a few years remain and the grave is ready.read · scan
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 149–150In death there is no remembrance of God; Sheol gives no thanks.read · scan
- p. 176–177Brought up from Sheol; the dead cannot praise God.read · scan
- p. 290The dead do not praise Jehovah; the living will bless him forevermore.read · scan
Ecclesiastes; or, The PreacherVol. 44
- p. 345–346One fate befalls righteous and wicked; the living have hope, the dead know nothing and are forgotten, so live while alive.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 147The gentleman died of fever; Quixote accepts God's slaying as leaving only silence and a shrug.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19
- p. 212–214Faustus dismisses damnation, confounding hell with Elysium.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 108Moloch weighs being abolished against eternal existence in misery.read · scan
- p. 108Belial values intellectual being and fears annihilation, the cure 'to be no more'.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 72The certainty of death coupled with ignorance of what it is; annihilation or angry God.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 247–248Humans live shorter lives than sea-folk, who live three hundred years then dissolve without grave.read · scan
- p. 255–256She is doomed to die and become foam on his wedding morning.read · scan
- p. 256On the wedding night she awaits the dawn that will kill her, and thinks of everlasting night without soul or dream.read · scan
- p. 257–258She must kill him or die at sunrise; she throws away the knife and dissolves into foam.read · scan
Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of NaishápúrVol. 41
- p. 947–949Once dead, you never return; so drink while you live.read · scan
- p. 949–951Man returns to earth and annihilation; existence goes on, pouring millions of bubbles like us.read · scan
- p. 951–953This life flies; none returns from the door of darkness to tell the road.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1032–1033The death-white curtain makes him shudder and think of the sleep of death.read · scan
Christina Georgina Rossetti, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1181–1183Speakers face death, oblivion and the silent land; the road of life ends in a resting-place.read · scan
Algernon Charles Swinburne, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1204–1206Death awaits all born; thanks that no life lives forever and the dead never rise, only eternal sleep.read · scan
- p. 1208–1209All lovers and roses share the sleep of death; at the end death himself lies dead.read · scan
7e.The underworld and the shades of the dead
See also: Immortality 6d · Religion 5c
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 66–67Penelope asks whether Odysseus lives or has died and gone to Hades; the phantom refuses to say.read · scan
- p. 142–143The journey to the dead is dreadful since no man has sailed to hell in a ship; the dead are strengthless heads.read · scan
- p. 145Ghosts of brides, youths, old men and slain warriors crowd the trench, showing all mortals' end.read · scan
- p. 151–152Castor and Polydeuces live and die on alternate days, honoured by Zeus below.read · scan
- p. 158–159Shades of the dead retain their passions and pursuits in Hades.read · scan
- p. 160–161Heracles' phantom among clamoring dead while the man himself feasts with the gods; Odysseus fears the Gorgon and leaves Hades.read · scan
- p. 208Odysseus asks whether his parents live or are in the house of Hades.read · scan
Aeschylus, The Libation-BearersVol. 8
- p. 76–77The dead remain wrathful and are propitiated with libations.read · scan
- p. 89–91Chorus says the dead spirit is not quelled though burned, and will rise in wrath after many days.read · scan
Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8
- p. 126–127The dead roam shamed and scorned; the ghost appeals from the world of death.read · scan
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 97–98Job looks to Sheol as his house and calls the worm his mother, asking where his hope is.read · scan
- p. 108Sheol takes sinners; the worm feeds on them.read · scan
- p. 108–111The dead tremble and Sheol is naked before God.read · scan
- p. 123–124Sickness draws the soul toward the pit; redemption restores life to the light.read · scan
- p. 132–133God asks whether Job has seen the gates of death.read · scan
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 252–253Sufferer draws near Sheol, reckoned among the dead, asking whether the dead can praise God in the land of forgetfulness.read · scan
Aristophanes, The FrogsVol. 8
- p. 439Heracles jestingly lists ways of reaching Hades: hanging, hemlock, leaping from a tower, or the ferry across the lake.read · scan
- p. 439Charon ferries the dead across the lake; a corpse refuses to carry baggage and would rather live again.read · scan
- p. 482–487Opening riddle questions whether death may be life and life death; the underworld setting frames the poet's return to the living.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 100The dead hero returns as a ghost, bearing wounds received for his country.read · scan
- p. 117The ghost tells Aeneas that tears and cries cannot relieve the dead.read · scan
- p. 207–210The descent to hell is easy but return is the labor, granted to few of heavenly race.read · scan
- p. 210Descent to the realm of the dead: ghosts crowd Charon's ferry, personified Death, Sleep, Disease and Age guard the entrance to hell.read · scan
- p. 210Charon refuses to ferry living bodies across the Stygian shore.read · scan
- p. 210Suicides now wish to live and bear their pains, but Fate forbids their return.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 311Ghost of a chained skeleton is appeased by burial rites, ending the haunting.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 207–208The riders declare they are alive yet dead, the banished folk of the elfmounds.read · scan
Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49
- p. 363–365The bondmaid doubts whether she sees the ending of all things as the dead ride.read · scan
- p. 366–367The dead are stronger and more dreadful at night; hope wanes.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 13Death has despoiled countless spirits; the dead are separated from the living Dante.read · scan
- p. 36Virgil recalls Erichtho compelling shades back to their bodies.read · scan
- p. 49Chiron notes the living Dante moves what he touches, unlike the dead.read · scan
- p. 93–96The shades notice Dante is alive by the action of his throat.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 149–151Spirits marvel that Dante breathes and lives; the shade Casella cannot be embraced, its body insubstantial, though it loves him still.read · scan
- p. 153Virgil's shadowless body is buried; bodies of the dead can suffer heat and cold by divine power.read · scan
- p. 153–156Spirits are startled that Dante's living body casts a shadow; Virgil confirms it is a human body.read · scan
- p. 161–162Spirits wonder that Dante's living body blocks the light.read · scan
- p. 175Spirits are amazed that Dante journeys still in his first life.read · scan
- p. 199The spirits marvel at a living man among the dead, still pent in the body.read · scan
- p. 208Dante ascends in mortal flesh after passing through Hell, at God's grace.read · scan
- p. 240Dante explains he came living, in true flesh, through the realm of the truly dead, guided by Virgil.read · scan
- p. 250The spirits marvel that Dante's shadow shows he is a living body not yet entered into death.read · scan
Traditional BalladsVol. 40
- p. 78–79The ghost warns his kiss shortens her life; his grave bed is cold meal, worms and dew.read · scan
- p. 80–82Dead sons return for one night wearing birch hats from Paradise, then depart when the cock crows.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 112The dead king returns from the sepulchre; Hamlet values his life at a pin's fee, confronting death and the dead's return.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46
- p. 358Macbeth finds it stranger that the murdered now rise again than that murders occur.read · scan
Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26
- p. 147–149Rumours of how Theseus died, perhaps descending living into the underworld.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 476–478Dying husband and the wife's threat to haunt him from the grave.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 663–664Laodamia hopes gods may reverse death, citing Alcestis and Aeson restored.read · scan
James Hogg, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 763–766Kilmeny vanishes; the land fears whether she is living or dead; she leaves this world of sorrow for the land of thought.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient MarinerVol. 41
- p. 692–694Dead men rise and work the ropes like lifeless tools, the Mariner's kinsman among them.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 713–715Mother died at Christabel's birth; the bodiless dead is glimpsed.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 432–434He calls the dead Astarte from the grave; she is silent then foretells his earthly ills end tomorrow.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 996–998Toilers perish and suffer, some in hell, others resting in Elysian valleys.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1101The vanished music mourned; dead are imagined returning to a world worth their return.read · scan
Sydney Dobell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1114–1116A maid's ghost lingers at the stile through the years.read · scan
‹ 6 · Outline · 8 ›