Sources of the mediæval legend of the Vision of the Otherworld--The Classical Tradition--The Otherworld in the Greek poets--Influence of the Mysteries--The effect of initiation on the future life--Ethical teaching of the Mysteries--Plato’s _Vision of Er_--Plato’s opinion of the Mysteries--Description of Elysium in the _Axiochus_--The _Frogs_ of Aristophanes; visit to Hades by Dionysos; light thrown on the Greek views of the Mysteries of the next world--Plutarch’s _Vision of Thespesios_--Plutarch’s eschatology--Rebirth theory in Plato and Plutarch--The Vision in Latin literature--The _Somnium Scipionis_--Virgil’s description of the Otherworld--Literary character of his treatment--Composite nature of his eschatology--His authority in the Middle Ages 48-67 2. THE ORIENTAL TRADITION Dante’s attitude towards Virgil--His scheme in the Commedia--Non-classical elements thereby necessitated--Process of accretion in the later Jewish Church--The Chaldæan eschatology--Visits to Hades of Ishtâr and Gisdubar--The Chaldæan Elysium--Arali, the Chaldæan Hades--Aristocratic conception of Elysium--The effect of the Median conquest--The Avestan eschatology--The soul after death--The Chinvât Bridge--Judgment--The Avestan Elysium--The Tree of Life and the World-Sea--The bird Karshipta--the Vara of Yima--Yima and the Indian Yama--Allegoric tendencies of the Avesta--Its adoption of earlier animism--The question of its influence on Judaism--Darmesteter on Neo-Platonic elements in the Avesta--Older elements in the Avestan theory of the Otherworld; Achæmenian, Indian and Chaldæan--The Amesha Spentas and the Philonic emanations--Their probable connection with the Chaldæan Spirits of Earth--Chaldæan and Persian influences upon Jewish speculation--Oriental conceptions present in the Vision of Adamnán: the seven Heavens, the mystical Bird, the Tree of Life, the World-Sea, the Bridge--Rebirth theory absent from the Avestan religion--Egypt and Neo-Judaism--The Jewish colony in Alexandria; its culture mainly Hellenic; interchange of ideas with the Egyptians--Egyptian cults in the Hellenic world--Egyptian eschatology; Judgment, the ‘Eater of the Dead,’ Elysium--Purgatorial and kindred theories of the Rabbis and early Christians--Special treatment of half good, half wicked souls--Greek and Oriental influences on the Otherworld conceptions of the Christian Church--Rebirth rejected by the Jews, and by the ancient Egyptians 67-94 3. THE ECCLESIASTICAL TRADITION