The Odyssey, a couple of Plato's dialogues, The Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, and the Bible speak of a land of the dead that is within the earth. Probably based on

The Odyssey, a couple of Plato's dialogues, The Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, and the Bible speak of a land of the dead that is within the earth. Probably based on the older cosmology that associated the elements with moral status of souls. Bad = earthy = go down. Good = fire = go up. In the earth is down, in the heavens is up. Souls go somewhere when the body dies, so bad souls go down into the earth and good souls go up into the heavens with the stars. Also the reason for earth centered universes. Not because ancient thinkers thought humans were so great, but because they thought humans were so bad. Saying the earth (ball of dirt and badness) orbits the Sun (ball of fire and goodness) made no sense in that context.