hell mouth
Demon portal entrance
A hell mouth is a gaping, monstrous entrance to hell, depicted in medieval art as a beast's open jaws swallowing the damned.
The image appears in manuscript illuminations, church carvings, and stage machinery for mystery plays.
In contemporary use, hellmouth often describes any place of concentrated evil or chaos—popularized by the television series *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*, where the town sits atop a literal portal to demonic realms: This neighborhood is basically a hellmouth.
- infernoDevastating, uncontrollable blaze
- abyssImmeasurably profound depth
- demonMalevolent supernatural being
- portalImposing entrance or gate
- underworldRealm of the departed
Buffy · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · gateway · flames · fire and brimstone · damnation · eternal damnation · maw · chasm · vampire · teeth · gaping · apocalypse · sulfur · brimstone · Sunnydale · cavern · darkness
- medieval deathdanse macabre, dance of death, memento mori, Black Death, Last Judgment
- medieval theatermystery play, mystery plays, morality play, morality plays, passion play
hell mouthpearly gates
Ornate doors with opalescent decoration
gates of heaven · golden gates · Jacob's ladder · narrow gate
hell mouthsanctuary
Protected sacred space
safe harbor · refuge · haven · holy of holies · garden gate
hell, mouth, hells, mouths, mouthed, mouthing, hellish, hellishly, hellfire