“And as I looked at them, I saw a flag
Flapping wildly as it was carried forward,
As if it was not fit to rest a moment;

Behind it came a huge torrent of people;
So many that I never should have thought
Death had been able to undo so many.

When I had recognised a few of them,
I saw and knew the shadow of that man
Who out of cowardice made the great refusal.

I understood at once beyond all doubt
That this was the miserable and useless gang
Of those who please neither God nor his enemies.

That calamitous crowd, who never were alive,
Were naked, and their skins blown with the bites
Of swarms of wasps and hornets following them.”

- Dante Alighieri.

“Yes, we may be sure, all those things which stories tell us in the depths of Acheron, are in our life. Neither does wretched Tantalus fear the great rock which hangs over him in the air, as the tale tells, numbed with idle terror; but rather it is in life that the vain fear of the gods threatens mortals. They fear the fall of the blow which chance may deal to each.

...But it is fear of punishment for misdeeds in life (fear notable as the deeds are notable) and the atonement for crime, the dungeon and the terrible hurling down from the rock, scourgings, executioners, the rack, pitch, the metal plate, torches; for although they are not with us, yet the self-knowing mind, fearing for its misdeeds, sets goads to itself, and sears itself with lashings, nor does it see meanwhile what end there can be to its ills, or what limit at last to punishment. Yes, and it fears that these same things may grow worse after death. Here after all on earth the life of fools becomes a hell.”

- Lucretius.