Harrowing of Hell, an icon by Dionisius, from the Ferapontov Monastery.

The descent to the underworld is a mytheme of comparative mythology found in the religions of the Ancient Near East up to and including Christianity. The myth involves the death of a youthful god (or goddess: Persephone, Inanna, for instance) who is a life-death-rebirth deity, mourned and then recovered from the underworld by his or her consort, lover or mother.

Katabasis

Main article: katabasis

One meaning of katabasis is the epic convention of the hero's trip into the underworld.^[1] In Greek mythology, for example, Orpheus enters the underworld in order to bring Eurydice back to the world of the living.

Most katabases take place in a supernatural underworld, such as Hades or Hell - as in Nekyia, the 11th book of the Odyssey, which describes the descent of Odysseus to the underworld. However, katabasis can also refer to a journey through other dystopic areas, like those Odysseus encounters on his 20-year journey back from Troy to Ithaca. Pilar Serrano^[1] allows the term katabasis to encompass brief or chronic stays in the underworld, including those of Lazarus and Castor and Pollux.

Mythological characters

Mythological characters who make visits to the underworld include:

Ancient Egyptian

• Egyptian Osiris (see also Egyptian Book of the Dead)

Ancient Greek AND ROMAN

• Adonis/Tammuz is mourned and then recovered by his consort/mother Aphrodite/Inanna/Ishtar
• The god Dionysus, to rescue Semele from Hades^[2]
• Heracles, for his twelfth labor, on which occasion he also rescued Theseus
• Odysseus, to consult Tiresias and Elpenor among others.
• The god Hermes, to rescue Persephone from Hades
• Orpheus, to rescue Eurydice from Hades
• Persephone and Demeter
• Psyche
• Aeneas, to speak to his father in the Aeneid

Ancient Sumerian

• Enkidu, in a tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh usually considered a later addition to the tale
• Gilgamesh descends to the underworld to meet Utnapishtim in a quest for immortality.
• Inanna descends to the underworld with gifts to pass through the seven gates of the underworld.

Judeo-Christianity

• The biblical story of Joseph is paralleled to the myth in Panbabylonism, notably in Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers.
• Mary's mourning of Jesus (pietà) and the latter's Harrowing of Hell
• Dante, in the The Divine Comedy: Inferno
• Satan, in John Milton's Paradise Lost

Norse paganism

• Baldr
• Lemminkäinen's rescue from Tuonela by his mother.
• Helreið Brynhildar.

Other

• Japanese mythology: Izanagi and Izanami in Yomi
• Mayan mythology: Itzamna and Ix Chel
• Mahayana Buddhism: the bodhisattva Kuan Yin's descent into a hell-like region after taking on the bad karma of her executioner in pity.
• Vedic religion: Ushas (dawn) is liberated from the Vala by Indra; Emperor Yudhisthira descends into Naraka
• Welsh mythology: Pwyll's descent into Annwn in the Welsh Mabinogion
• Ohlone mythology (Native American): Kaknu fights Body of Stone.

See also

• James George Frazer
• Mystery religion

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Pilar González Serrano, "Catábasis y resurrección". Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie II: Historia Antigua. Volume 12, pp. 129-179. Madrid, 1999.
2. ^ Robert Graves. The Greek Myths, 27. k, which cites Pausanias' Description of Greece 2.31.2.

External links

• World of DanteMultimedia website that offers Italian text of Divine Comedy, Allen Mandelbaum's translation, gallery, interactive maps, timeline, musical recordings, and searchable database.

Further reading

• Walter Burkert, Homo necans.
• Janda, M., Eleusis, das indogermanische Erbe der Mysterien (1998).
• Rachel Falconer, Hell in Contemporary Literature: Western Descent Narratives since 1945, (Edinburgh University Press, 2005/07)