Oct 6, 2025
I'm vaguely fascinated by the "Hellmouth" imagery in Medieval art. The idea of Hell, or its entrance, is represent by a huge beast or monster with a wide gaping mouth for the purpose of devouring sinners:
It's interesting to me cuz' I'm too used to the trope of the "Hellgate" or the entrance to the netherworld as an inanimate doorway in Modern fantasy media.
I know it's allegorical and all, but like, the idea of Hell as an actual living entity instead just being a place, there's something so primal about it. It calls to mind a specific scene in the "Legends of the Jews" by Louis Ginzberg, during Moses' ascension, where Hell itself cries out to the angel Nasargiel to sate its hunger:
