Latin is where we can establish the etymological origin of the term underworld that we are now going to address. It can be literally translated as "world of spirits or the dead" and is the result of the union of several lexical components of said language:
-The prefix «infra-«, which is synonymous with «below» or «below».
-The noun "mundus", which can be translated as "world".
The notion of underworld has two major uses according to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ): one of them linked to the earthly; the other, to the supernatural.
The RAE indicates that the underworld is the group of individuals who have a poor quality of life or who subsist miserably in comparison to the majority of the members of the society of which they are part. In this sense, the area that brings together these people is known as the underworld. For example: "The young man has been involved in the underworld of drugs for a long time" , "Those excluded from this system survive as best they can in the underworld" , "No one emerges unscathed from the underworld of gangs" .
On the other hand, the idea of the underworld refers to the world of the deceased . It is about the dimension or abstract place where spirits and souls live.
This underworld does not exist in a specific or physical place and is outside the reach of science . That is why its "existence" is linked to beliefs and mythologies.
In Catholicism, the underworld would be equivalent to paradise and hell . Catholics believe that, upon death, the soul passes to another dimension, being sent to one side or another according to how the individual behaved on Earth .
In the worldview of the Incas , to mention another case, the underworld was called Uku Pacha . The members of this town physically located Uku Pacha under the surface of the water and the earth , being communicated with the Kay Pacha (earthly world) through different routes.
In the field of art we have to emphasize the existence of "The Painter of the Underworld." He is an artist specialized in ceramics and a native of Apulia, who produced most of his work in the period between 330 BC and 310 BC.
If he receives that name it is because he specialized in representing different scenes of the underworld in his works which, among other things, stand out because the human figures that appeared had a very expressive look as well as because their bodies were less harmonious than those of the figures of others. artists of his time such as Darío Painter.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the existence of the American film "Underworld: The Awakening", titled in English "Underworld: Awakening", which was released in 2012 under the direction of Mans Marlind and Björn Stein.
It is framed within science fiction and is the fourth part of the "Underworld" saga, which revolves around the world of vampires and werewolves.