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Originally Posted by Phreddie The capacity of Hell is one of several issues not addressed in Dantes Divine Comedy, AFAIK the only text that actually takes man into Hell. |
There are many texts that do that, Phreddie. Aeneas, in Virgil's Aeneid, goes through hell before returning to earth. So does Odysseus in the Odyssey. There are extent non-canonic early Christian texts tracing Jesus' descent into hell, which literally fulfills your conditions if the Christians in question are followers of an Arian sect, defining Jesus as a superior type of man. Orpheus descended into "hell" as well to bring back his beloved wife, Eurydice; there is no doubt more hidden in the tale, since Orpheus was also the central figure in a powerful Greco-Egyptian religious cult in which he was depicted as a slain and risen god.
Nor is this limited to Greco-Roman and Hebraic sources. The mortal son of the Welsh god Manannân-mac-Lir, Bran, took a voyage to the land of the afterlife (which wasn't anywhere near as bad as others might have it), and returned, as depicted in song and story. The Irish mortal Finn-mac-Cumaill did the same, and so did Istar, in Sumerian tales. All these were repeatedly written down. What can be said is that Dante's poem is the longest of the lot (at least, until the 18th century), but it's not the only one.