Thanatological and Escathological Aspects of the “Sacred Mountain” in Mythologies

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy of Religion, Religions and Mysticism, Farabi College, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Mythologies are in a way narrating the manifestations of the sacred in the mundane world. The sacred place is one of these notions. One of the places in this world that has been connected with the sacred in different traditions and religions is the sacred mountain. Due to its height, uncontrollability, strangeness, its proximity to the sky, and its stability, the mountain has been associated with many religious and mythological depictions. The sacred mountain mainly contains cosmological dimensions and is connected with divinity, creation, life and death, inspiration and revelation and the afterlife. The prevalence of this theme in religious and mythical beliefs in different cultures and its symbolic complexities, necessitate detailed research around this concept. In this research, in particular, we have dealt with aspects of different depictions of the sacred mountain that are related to death, the world of the dead, and heaven and hell. The research method is descriptive-analytical with a comparative and phenomenological approach. In this research, 1- by citing some important related cases, we have shown that the belief in the sacred mountain and drawing thanatological and eschatological dimensions for it, has been existed in almost most religious cultures and mythological themes of different nations and even in flat lands without high mountains, 2- by Reviewing Comparatively and phenomenologically, it shows that the features of the mountain, such as height, strength, constancy, hiddenness and incomprehensibility, as well as the natural holes and caves in it, provided the necessary ground for mythologists to symbolize concepts such as the place of gods, death, the world of spirits, heaven and hell in the image of the mountain and in this way, bring unknown things such as death and the afterlife into the realm of knowable things and reduce their strangeness and.

Keywords

References

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Comparative Study of Religions and Mysticism
Volume 9, Issue 1
March 2025
Pages 185-210

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  • Receive Date: 18 March 2025
  • Accept Date: 18 March 2025

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