CLA 2323 Lecture 8: CLA2323 lecture notes.Nov 16
4 Mar 2017
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The katabasis: the hike downward : the living journey to the underworld. 206 213, on the underworld generally: the river styx, the ferryman charon, etc. Tales of the city thebes: pomeroy pp. In this class session we reviewed the myths of katabasis (literally the march downward or walk downward ): the journey of a living person into the underworld. The katabasis is not what the ghosts of the dead do; it"s what a living, walking person does: heracles, etc. Although 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 the 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.
