Katabasis
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- | ''"Little space is devoted to the ''[[Anabasis]]''; it is, as in the story of Xenophon, the ''[[Katabasis]]'' which fills the larger part."-- | + | "The Russian [[anabasis]] and [[katabasis]] of Napoleon"--''[[Revolt of the Tartars]]'' (1837) by de Quincey |
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"The Russian anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon"--Revolt of the Tartars (1837) by de Quincey |
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Katabasis, or catabasis, (from Greek κατὰ, "down" βαίνω "go") is a descent of some type, such as moving downhill, or the sinking of the winds or sun, a military retreat, or a trip to the underworld or a trip from the interior of a country down to the coast. There exist multiple related meanings in poetry, rhetoric, and modern psychology.
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A trip to the coast
The term katabasis can refer to a trip from the interior of a country down to the coast (for example, following a river), while the term anabasis refers to an expedition from a coastline up into the interior of a country.
This is the main meaning given for katabasis by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) which it describes as "A going down; a military retreat, in allusion to that of the ten thousand Greeks under Xenophon, related by him in his Anabasis." and quote:
In the opening of Plato's Republic, Socrates recounts "going down" to the port city of Piraeus, located South of his native Athens. Several scholars, most notably Allan Bloom, have read this first word, kateben ("I went down") as an allusion to Odysseus' journey into the underworld.
Arts
In poetry and rhetoric, the term katabasis refers to a "gradual descending" of emphasis on a theme within a sentence or paragraph, while anabasis refers to a gradual ascending in emphasis. John Freccero notes, "In the ancient world, [the] descent in search of understanding was known as katabasis", thus endowing mythic and poetic accounts of katabasis with a symbolic significance.
Modern psychology
In modern psychology, the term katabasis is also sometimes used to describe the depression some young men experience. Author Robert Bly proposes in his book Iron John: A Book About Men several reasons for the "catabasis phenomenon", amongst them the lack of Western initiation rites and the lack of strong father figures and role models.
Trip into the underworld
Katabasis is the epic convention of the hero's trip into the underworld. 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 10-year journey back from Troy to Ithaca. Pilar Serrano allows the term katabasis to encompass brief or chronic stays in the underworld, including those of Lazarus and Castor and Pollux. In this case, however, the katabasis must be followed by an anabasis in order to be considered a true katabasis instead of a death.
descent to the underworld
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
One meaning of katabasis is the epic convention of the hero's trip into the underworld. 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 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:
- Egyptian Osiris (see also Egyptian Book of the Dead)
- Adonis/Tammuz is mourned and then recovered by his consort/mother Aphrodite/Inanna/Ishtar
- The god Dionysus, to rescue Semele from Hades
- Heracles, for his twelfth labor, on which occasion he also rescued Theseus
- The god Hermes, to rescue Persephone from Hades
- Orpheus, to rescue Eurydice from Hades
- Persephone and Demeter
- Psyche
- Odysseus
- Aeneas, to speak to his father in the Aeneid
- Theseus and Pirithous to try to abduct Persephone. They failed and only Theseus was rescued by Heracles.
- 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.
- The biblical story of Old Testament 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
- Baldr
- Hermod
- Helreið Brynhildar.
- Lemminkäinen's rescue from Tuonela by his mother.
- Other
- Japanese mythology: Izanagi and Izanami in Yomi
- Mayan mythology: Hunahpu and Xbalanque: Maya Hero Twins
- 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