Along with the Gods and Dante’s Divine Comedy

By Art Dio Kang

Image Credit: Along with the Gods by Homin Joo

Along with the Gods (2010-2012) is a South Korean web cartoon, created by a cartoonist, Homin Joo. It is a universally loved cartoon regardless of age or gender. Like Dante’s Divine Comedy, it is written in three different parts: the afterlife, this life, and mythology. The afterlife portion, which portrays life after death in modernized Korean-Buddhist hell is the part adapted from Dante's Divine Comedy. The main character of the cartoon is Jahong Kim. He has lived a very average life and died at the age of 38 before his mother. He is guided by Kihan Jin, an extremely proficient lawyer of the afterlife Kim had to go through 7 trials for 49 days (7 days in each hell)which was Jin’s first ever time being a lawyer. The trials judge different sins the soul has committed in his life. It is worth noting while it is called hell, it displays Purgatory aspects as the souls continue to the next trial after their sentences end until the ultimate verdict. By comparing the two works, we can not only learn how Dante impacted another culture but also distinguish the values that are commonly praised and the values that are valued differently in Eastern and Western cultures.

        Joo incorporated the first 7 Buddhist hells, excluding the last 3, in which corrupt officials, lustful sinners, and those who stole from their parents or teachers are punished^[1]. Furthermore, all portrayed hell have been modified for all audiences. However, the lawyer part is a creation of Joo, displaying the influence of Dante’s Divine Comedy. From the moment Kim gets off the train to hell, Jin guides him through, explaining each place and helping him with his clever solutions. Because Kim is a defendant and Jin is a lawyer, Jin acts more than just a guide.

In First hell, the King (Judge) punishes those who haven’t practiced good deeds and helped the pitiful; sinners walk on the infinity-shaped bridge made of swords. Due to Jin’s plan, Kim got into the last group being judged of the day and the King let him pass as he was feeling lazy.

In Second hell, the King punishes those who stole from someone, never returned what they borrowed, and only received. The sinners are put in 3 different hot springs based on their sins: excrement, acid, and lava. Thanks to Jin’s hard work, the King concludes although Kim hasn’t done anything noteworthy, he appears to be a good person; therefore, to cleans the excrement hot spring (when there is no water) for 3 days.

In Third hell, the King punishes those who have been undutiful to their parents and made others’ hearts frozen; the sinners are frozen in the valley of ice. Although Kim had some sinful behaviors such as not visiting his mom because of busy work and passing away before his mom, Jin defended Kim the company forced him to work on weekends, to attend company dinners, and to drink, which caused his death. Because those offenses are considered minor these days, the King rules he is not worthy of being punished.

In Fourth hell, the soul’s five sins are measured on a giant scale: taking the lives of living things, stealing, excessive drinking, conducting immoral behaviors, and speaking thoughtless words. When convicted, the soul will run around the forest of swords. Kim barely passed as his weight was very close to the minimum conviction standard.

In Fifth hell, the King judges the sins made with mouths; the sinner’s tongue is stretched out and the workers of hell cultivate crops on it. Here, Kim has shown zero sins and gets a huge compliment from the king.

In Sixth hell, the King judges the sins committed by the soul’s close ones. The sinners have fallen into a pit full of venomous snakes. Like Kim, people around him were also good people, letting him pass easily.

In Seventh hell, the King judges sins related to money; the soul is tied up and whenever the sinner’s sin is revealed, the chainsaw gets longer and closer and whenever it is revealed the sinner was deceived, it withdraws. Kim almost gets punished for exploiting the subcontractors, but Jin defends he was forced to due to his boss and it was revealed Kim has been deceived 566 times. After the seventh trial, the soul gets the final verdict of which of the 6 gates they will enter: the gate to the Inferno, the gate to becoming a thirsty and starving ghost, the gate to reincarnating as an animal; the gate of constant brawling; the gate to reincarnate as a human; the gate to Paradise. It is implied Kim reincarnates as the baby of a young couple who recently lost their firstborn.

        As displayed in Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Christian tradition sees life and death as two distinct states. This belief has been developed based on the theology of “no salvation outside the church” along with the doctrine of ‘judgment’ and ‘resurrection.’ As the arrival of the apocalypse delays, the church creates a concept of Purgatory, where it is closely related to the ‘judgment’ of the souls, purifying the redeemable sins, and will disappear upon the ‘resurrection.’ Initially, Augustine referred to Purgatory as a period between death and judgment; gradually, its meaning changed to the spatial concept. After the Council of Trent (1945-1963), Purgatory has been recognized as the official doctrine of the church^[2]. East Asian Buddhist view of the afterlife perceives death as an extension of life based on the reincarnation of Hinduism and ancestral rites of Confucianism and folk religions^[3]. Like Along with the Gods, a soul gets 7 trials based on karma he had in his life for the 49 days after death, punished accordingly, and receives the verdict of their next life. The chain of reincarnation breaks once the soul has enough good karma to enter paradise.

        Both Purgatory and Buddhist hell include a concept of having their lives judged rightfully and a chance to enter into a better world or a next life. It displays the religious nature of humans hoping for the afterlife where they receive righteous value for or be compensated for the unfairness of their lives^[4]. In other words, this concept of the afterlife both cultures share has become a hope for ordinary people who live unfair and unfortunate lives. It gives a basis for them to live ethically. While Western Christianity believes in the fairer and more hopeful afterlife in a state where death and life are divided based on Gnostic Dualism, the East Asian Buddhist culture suggests an idea of reincarnation where life and death repeat eternally.

        The punished sins of Purgatory, according to Dante, are based on the 7 deadly sins: Proud, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust. While the sins judged and punished in Buddhist hell in Along with the Gods include general immorality and crimes such as theft, murder, and fraud like Divine Comedy, it puts the main focus on practicing good deeds, helping others, and being dutiful to the parents.

        7 deadly sins have been systemized and adopted into the Christian faith by Pope Gregory I in AD 590 in his Moralia in Job^[5]. These sins are considered “evil thoughts” and have been developed further by Thomas Aquinas as “capital sins” because all the other sins derive from them^[6]. East Asian Buddhist sins are based on the existence of karma and Confucianism. Practicing good deeds provides good karma. Lacking good karma is punishable and is a measurement of the soul’s qualification to break the chain of reincarnation. It is shown in Along with the Gods by portraying a grandmother who lived on a very low income yet regularly donated to others. She has done plenty of good karma, gets one of the best lawyers, the best means of transportation to cross rivers between hells, and passes through trials quickly. The Confucianism aspect is shown the best in the third hell, where filial piety is judged, and the tenth hell, where those who stole what belongs to the parents or teachers (not shown in the cartoon). Although the Bible says “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12)^[7], not being dutiful to one’s parents is not necessarily a punishable sin in Divine Comedy. The closest one would be the first pit of the ninth circle of the Inferno where those who betrayed their family and relatives are punished. Christian faith punishes blasphemous acts while the Buddhist faith doesn’t. Many figures in Inferno in Divine Comedy end up because of blasphemous behaviors or their deeds using Christianity for their profit or affecting it negatively: Brunetto Latini, Nicholas III, Ibraham, Caiaphas, Judas, etc. This distinction between the two cultures derives from the Confucious influence on East Asia. Confucianism isn’t necessarily a religion but an adopted lifestyle. It incorporates humanistic and ethical natures. Therefore, it is emphasized to respect parents and teachers and do all duties as they bring life and teach everything. Because of its influence, East Asian–particularly Korean–Buddism does not praise any specific gods but (primarily) the spirits of direct ancestors. Thus, blasphemy isn’t punished in East Asian Buddhism but being undutiful to their parents and teachers is while blasphemy is one of the worst sins in Christianity.

        Along with the Gods has been influenced largely by Dante’s Divine Comedy as it follows a similar plot and concept. There, however, are differences derived from the two works being written in two different cultures. By comparing them, we can learn how the afterlife of each culture differs and how different values are appreciated while acknowledging the similar human natures of different cultures from the common themes.

Work Cited

Alighieri, Dante, and Mandelbaum, Allen. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Purgatorio: A Verse Translation, with an Introduction. Knopf, 1995.

The Bible, The New International Version, Biblegateaway, 2011.

Jung, Youngchan & Seong, Shinhyung. "A Comparative Study of La Divina Commedia and Along with the Gods on the Meaning of the Afterlife." The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 21 12.4 (2021): 51-263, 10.22143/HSS21.12.4.18

Joo, Homin. “Along with the Gods.” Cartoon. Naver Webtoon, 8 Jan 2010 - 29 Aug 2012, https://series.naver.com/comic/detail.series?productNo=2835466.

Refoule, F. (1967) "Evagrius Ponticus," In New Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. 5, pp. 644f, Staff of Catholic University of America, Eds., New York: McGraw-Hill.

"SUMMA THEOLOGICA: The cause of sin, in respect of one sin being the cause of another Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 84; I-II,84,3)". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 4 December 2015