why is heaven always up and hell always down?
is hell heavier?
At a guess, things that are dead and rotting get buried in the cold, dark ground while the heavens are the source of heat and light (sun and stars) and nourishment (rainwater) as well as a place of freedom (if you’re lucky enough to be a bird or a god or a dragon and can fly).
While that would generally explain the tendencies, I’m not sure that they are absolutely universal. My browser is having trouble getting me into http://www.britannica.com and to http://www.pantheon.org but I am not certain that the Greek Elysian fields were in the heavens and I am also not sure that Asgaard and Hel were definitely “up” and “down” (although Asgaard seems to have been “up” since the Valkyries took up slain warriors into the sky).
Certainly, good = up and bad = down seems to be a general trend among all the cultures that have influenced ours.
The original conception of Elysium was that it was a paradise for the dead but that it was on the surface of the earth, far to the West. In this sense it is quite similar to the Avalon of the Arthurian legends. Later, the Greeks came to think of Elysium as part of the Underworld. Tartarus, the place of punishment for the wicked dead, was also part of the Underworld.
In Norse mythology, the dead who didn’t die in battle went to Niflheim, which was ruled by the goddess Hel. Later, Hel was used to refer to the realm of the dead. Some believed Niflheim to be a subdivision of Hel, or the other way around. Most believed Hel/Niflheim was far below the land of men (Midgard), but a few believed it was far to the north. Above Midgard was Asgard, where the gods lived. Valhalla, where heroes slain in battle went, was part of Asgard. Some later observers believed Asgard was on the same level as Midgard, and in the center of it.
Well, I know that Hawaiians didn’t believe heaven was up, but rather at the bottom of the ocean. They buried their dead in such a way as to have the bones arrive on the ocean floor.