CLA 2323 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Clytemnestra, Asclepius, Locri
10 Dec 2017
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The katabasis: the hike downward : the living journey to the underworld. 206 213, on the underworld generally: the god hades, the river styx, the ferryman charon, etc. Kastor and polydeukes [castor and polydeuces]: buxton pp. In this class, we reviewed myths of katabasis (literally the march downward or walk downward ), which is a living person"s journey to the underworld. The katabasis is not what ghosts-of-the-dead do; it"s what a living, walking person does: heracles, etc. Although the hero odysseus in the odyssey book 11 is not clearly pictured as walking through a scene, nevertheless his visual journey must qualify as the earliest written example of katabasis. Five famous characters who made the journey and returned alive were . The young woman psyche, from the ancient greco-roman fable of cupid and psyche. The real feat in performing the katabasis is in getting back alive.
