question: how did hell become so tied to burning and fire? Why is there this almost unanimous depiction of eternal hellfire and not many icy, frozen-over hells?
comment: In the bible Hell is called the lake of fire. There are other torments described in Hell but it is mainly fire that never goes out. Gehenna from the Greek refers to the "Valley of Hinnom", which was a garbage dump just outside of Jerusalem. It was a place where people burned their garbage and there was always a fire burning there.
passages: But cold also played a part in earlier Christian depictions of Hell, beginning with the Apocalypse of Paul, originally from the early third century; the "Vision of Dryhthelm" by the Venerable Bede from the seventh century; "St Patrick's Purgatory", "The Vision of Tundale" or "Visio Tnugdali", and the "Vision of the Monk of Eynsham", all from the twelfth century;
  
  and the "Vision of Thurkill" from the early thirteenth century.
  
  Section::::Polytheism.
  
  Section::::Polytheism.:Ancient Mesopotamia.
   BULLET::::- "Gehenna" in the New Testament, where it is described as a place where both soul and body could be destroyed (Matthew 10:28) in "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43). The word is translated as either "Hell" or "Hell fire" in many English versions.
   In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, Hell is often depicted as fiery, painful, and harsh, inflicting suffering on the guilty. Despite these common depictions of Hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Buddhist - and particularly Tibetan Buddhist - descriptions of Hell feature an equal number of hot and cold Hells. Among Christian descriptions Dante's "Inferno" portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.
   BULLET::::- In Piers Anthony's series Incarnations of Immortality, Hell, along with Heaven and Purgatory, are actual locations populated by the main characters and souls of the dead.
  
  BULLET::::- Wayne Barlowe's book, "God's Demon", is set in Hell and follows the endeavors of a powerful Demon, Sargatanas, to achieve redemption. The hell depicted is in many ways the classical Christian perception of burning cities and desolate wastelands with souls being routinely tortured.
   In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, Hell is traditionally depicted as fiery and painful, inflicting guilt and suffering. Despite these common depictions of Hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Buddhist – and particularly Tibetan Buddhist – descriptions of hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. Among Christian descriptions Dante's "Inferno" portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.
   Gregory the Great also argued for the existence, before Judgment, of a "purgatorius ignis" (a cleansing fire) to purge away minor faults (wood, hay, stubble) not mortal sins (iron, bronze, lead). 
  
  Gregory of Nyssa several times spoke of purgation by fire after death, but he generally has apocatastasis in mind.
  
  Medieval theologians accepted the association of purgatory with fire. Thus the "Summa Theologica" of Thomas Aquinas considered it probable that purgatory was situated close to hell, so that the same fire that tormented the damned cleansed the just souls in purgatory.
   Next I saw people whom the fire of wrathbr
  
  had kindled, as they stoned a youth and keptbr
  
  on shouting loudly to each other: Kill!br
  
  br
  
  Kill! Kill! I saw him now, weighed down by death,br
  
  sink to the ground, although his eyes were bentbr
  
  always on Heaven: they were Heaven's gates,br
  
  br
  
  Praying to his high Lord, despite the torture,br
  
  to pardon those who were his persecutors;br
  
  his look was such that it unlocked compassion."
  
  The souls of the wrathful walk around in blinding acrid smoke, which symbolises the blinding effect of anger:
   Columba of Iona is alleged to have on several occasions even been able to name particular individuals who he said were going to end life in hellfire for their sins and accurately predicted the way they would die before the event had even happened.
   BULLET::::- An incomplete Middle English telling of the Harrowing of Hell is found in the Auchinleck manuscript.
  
  BULLET::::- Although the Orfeo legend has its origin in pagan antiquity, the Medieval romance of Sir Orfeo has often been interpreted as drawing parallels between the Greek hero and Jesus freeing souls from Hell, with the explication of Orpheus' descent and return from the Underworld as an allegory for Christ's as early as the "Ovide Moralisé" (1340).
   With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom the "democratization of religion" offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability. At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they had led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Maat, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the heavenly reed fields. If found guilty the person was thrown to Ammit, the "devourer of the dead" and would be condemned to the lake of fire. The person taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those considered justified appears in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where humans experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits but there is no suggestion of eternal torture; the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology can lead to annihilation. The Tale of Khaemwese describes the torment of a rich man, who lacked charity, when he dies and compares it to the blessed state of a poor man who has also died.
   BULLET::::- In the science fiction series Lexx, Heaven and Hell are depicted as two joined planets situated in the darkest part of the Dark Zone. The hell planet is known as Planet Fire to its inhabitants. When a human who has made bad choices dies in the Lexx universe, their life essence is taken to the Core of Fire. They are eternally reincarnated to suffer on the planet's surface. Hell is depicted as an endless burning desert, with distant towers dedicated to various types of punishment. The inhabitants have no memories of their resurrections or past lives, and exist in an ongoing cycle of suffering and death.
   Many of the great epics of European literature include episodes that occur in Hell. In the Roman poet Virgil's Latin epic, the "Aeneid", Aeneas descends into Dis (the underworld) to visit his father's spirit. The underworld is only vaguely described, with one unexplored path leading to the punishments of Tartarus, while the other leads through Erebus and the Elysian Fields.
   BULLET::::- In the second game of the above series, "Diablo II", the player character ventures into Hell in Act IV to finish off the game by killing the titular antagonist again, in his own separate domain of the realm, the Chaos Sanctuary.
   Proto-Germanic *"xalja-wītjan" (or *"halja-wītjan") is reconstructed from Old Norse "hel-víti" 'hell', Old English "helle-wíte" 'hell-torment, hell', Old Saxon "helli-wīti" 'hell', and the Middle High German feminine noun "helle-wīze". The compound is a compound of *"xaljō" (discussed above) and *"wītjan" (reconstructed from forms such as Old English "witt" 'right mind, wits', Old Saxon "gewit" 'understanding', and Gothic "un-witi" 'foolishness, understanding').
  
  Section::::Religion, mythology, and folklore.
   Section::::Orthodox conceptions.:Images.
  
  Saint John Chrysostom pictured Hell as associated with "unquenchable" fire and "various kinds of torments and torrents of punishment".
   Hellfire
  
  Hellfire may refer to:
  
  BULLET::::- The fires of Hell or lake of fire, terms used to describe Hell. Also sometimes referred to as "The Flame of The Dead" Due to its links to the underworld.
  
  Section::::Books.
  
  BULLET::::- Hell-Fire (story), a 1956 science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov
  
  BULLET::::- "Hellfire" (book), a 2005 history book written by Cameron Forbes
  
  BULLET::::- Hellfire (comics), various characters
  
  BULLET::::- Hellfire, a power of the Ghost Rider comic book character
  
  Section::::Film and TV.
  
  BULLET::::- "Hellfire" (1949 film), a 1949 western
  
  BULLET::::- "Hellfire" (1995 film), a TV movie produced by Roger Corman
   Ideas about the supposed fire of purgatory have changed with time: in the early 20th century the "Catholic Encyclopedia" reported that, while in the past most theologians had held that the fire of purgatory was in some sense a material fire, though of a nature different from ordinary fire, the view of what then seemed to be the majority of theologians was that the term was to be understood metaphorically.
   Fire rituals in Mesopotamia and Eurasia were thought to originate with Ancient Zoroastrian rituals around the use of fire in temples and on altars. Ancient Zoroastrians believe fire to have been “the most holy spirit” from which all life was born, and was used as a central icon in many rituals. 
  
  In the Old Testament, fire was often associated with divine intervention; with the burning bush guiding the decision of Moses, and the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites in the wilderness. Even the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah was accomplished through divine retribution.
   BULLET::::- In Freddy vs Jason, Freddy Krueger is rendered powerless in Hell with Springwood forgetting him. Freddy Krueger who is impersonating Jason's mother, resurrects Jason from Hell and sends him to Springwood to cause panic and fear.
  
  BULLET::::- In the film "Deconstructing Harry" by Woody Allen, the protagonist descends into Hell where he has a chance to learn from the Devil himself (played by Billy Crystal), among other things about the significance of having air conditioning in Hell, and then proceeds to discover his own father.
   BULLET::::- In the first of the "Diablo" series of games, a portion of hell is featured as a pit deep under the ground largely characterized as a place of suffering, as the bodies of hundreds of apparently tortured people reside there. The game manual refers to this place as actually part of the mortal realm whose barriers with the metaphysical Hell have weakened, causing it to take on hellish attributes combined with more worldly ones.
   The richest, most circumstantial accounts of the Harrowing of Hell are found in medieval dramatic literature, such as the four great cycles of English mystery plays which each devote a separate scene to depict it, or in passing references in Dante's "Inferno". The subject is found also in the Cornish mystery plays and the York and Wakefield cycles. These medieval versions of the story do not derive from the bare suggestion made in the Epistle ascribed to Peter, but come from the "Gospel of Nicodemus."
  
  Section::::Conceptions of the afterlife.
   BULLET::::- In the one-panel comic "The Far Side" (created by Gary Larson in the 1980s) Hell is featured among other recurring themes, depicting Satan and his minions as grim-looking figures in robes with horns and pitchforks, running the place in a business-like manner: in one instance, the bespectacled secretary behind the typewriter asks her boss seen as a silhouette behind the office door: "There is an insurance salesman here. Should I admit him in or tell to go to Heaven?"
   BULLET::::- In the comic book series "Ghost Rider", Johnny Blaze sold his soul to the demon Mephisto to cure his adoptive father from dying of cancer. In the recent revival of the series the Ghost Rider is seen residing in Hell to pay up his end of the bargain. Hell is depicted as a red desert with cannons and pools of lava. We see the devil as a powerful political leader residing in a grand palace with many servants and advisors.
   BULLET::::- The fantasy horror video game "Dante's Inferno", based on Dante's depiction of Hell in the "Divine Comedy", is exclusively set in Hell, fully realised in its medieval Roman Catholic conception as a physical and supernatural environment full of grotesque suffering and torture in correspondence with various sins.
  
  BULLET::::- The video game series "Devil May Cry" features Hell as a location to battle through. The name of the main character Dante is a reference to "The Divine Comedy", as is his twin brother Vergil.
   BULLET::::- Gehenna refers to the "Valley of Hinnom", which was a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem. It was a place where people burned their garbage and thus there was always a fire burning there. Bodies of those deemed to have died in sin without hope of salvation (such as people who committed suicide) were thrown there to be destroyed. Gehenna is used in the New Testament as a metaphor for the final place of punishment for the wicked after the resurrection.
  