What is sailing and gnashing of teeth?

"Sailing and gnashing of teeth" is a euphemistic description of the afterlife of rats.

All rats "sail." When a rat dies, Charat the ferryrat takes the rat's soul over the River Sticks to its eternal resting place.

Unworthy rats go to Ratratus, the cursed underworld. There is no food or ropes or toilet paper rolls to gnaw on, so the rats must gnash their incisors for eternity to keep them from growing too long. Thus, "sailing and gnashing of teeth" is an apt description.

The final repose of worthy rats is "sailing and gnawing of teeth." Charat takes them to rat paradise, the Elysium Dumpsters, where they spend eternity eating lovely trash from the glorious garbage cans.

Bible scholars who also study rodent mythology (all three of them) have found a parallel between cursed rats and cursed humans. Indeed, those Greeks who believed in Charon did experience "sailing and gnashing of teeth." But the Bible says the unsaved will spend eternity with "wailing and gnashing of teeth."

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