According to Greek mythology, Theseus and Pirithuous travel to the underworld in attempt to abduct Persephone. However, their plan fails and they are instead captured as prisoners.
While on a mission to capture Cerberus, Hercules finds them trapped in this underworld, but is only able to save Theseus. In fact, Dante mentions this in Canto IX: “If you remember well, your Cerberus still bears his chin and throat peeled clean for that!” (IX, 98-99) Therefore both Hercules and Theseus have gone to, and escaped from hell.
Furthermore, since Dante bases his visions of hell on Virgil’s Aeneid, we can also assume that Aeneas has gone to, and returned from hell. Of course there are countless other mortals that could have entered hell, including Orpheus and Odysseus.
However, what’s important is not the number of mortals that have entered hell, but the fact that mortals have indeed entered hell. According to Dante, the first gate of hell was forced open by Jesus during his first coming, during his death. However, if the Pilgrim is unable to travel through this second gate, how were the past heroes able to before Jesus opened it?
An interesting question/observation.
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