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Lucid Lexicon

hellgate

Old English hellegat/hellegeat "the entrance to Hell"

hell is from Old English hel, helle "nether world, abode of the dead, infernal regions"
Proto-Germanic *haljō "concealed place, netherworld"

hellgate noun
also Hell Gate, Hell-gate
Various names and locations of terran hellgates and doorways, or entrances to hell:
  • Romans marked hellgates with a lapis manalis
    "When a new town was founded, a round hole would be dug and a stone called a lapis manalis would be placed in the foundations, representing a gate to Hades or a gate to Orcus (ostium Orci)."
  • Avernus, Italy
    Meaning "birdless"; within the Avernus crater lays the Lake Avernus (Lago d'Averno)
  • Batagaika crater, Sakha Republic, Russia
    Biggest permafrost crater in the world

"Thine loves the same world that mine hates; / Thy heaven doors are my hell gates."

"The Everlasting Gospel"
by William Blake, 1825


“Facilis descensus Averno:
Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
Sed revocare gradium superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.”

(“The gates of Hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this task and mighty labor lies.”)

"The Aeneid"
by Virgil


Another translation:

“Easy is the way down to the Underworld: by night and by day dark Hades' door stands open; but to retrace one's steps and to make a way out to the upper air, that's the task, that is the labour.”

ianua ditis also means "the doors of the rich"

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Legend

~☉~lucid definition; added layer of lucidity, or aethereal context
classic definition
artificium definition; usually words which have undergone a warped evolution, or a complete perversion of the original sense
~

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In other realms, in other times

hellgate

Gates of Hell
(Video)

Atlas Obscura, August 10, 2015