The Labyrinth as Katabasis= Descent into the Underworld

• The Labyrinth • Descent into the Underworld

The Cyclops’ Cave as Katabasis

Odsysseus’ Descent into the Underworld

Odysseus and Tiresias

Odysseus and Elpenor

Odysseus also meets Agamamnon and AchillesSee Odyssey XI

Other Descents:Heracles and Cerberus

Museum Collection: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France Catalogue Number: Louvre E701Beazley Archive Number: N/AWare: Caeretan Black Figure Shape: HydriaPainter: --Date: ca 530 BCPeriod: Archaic

Cerberus

Hercules seizing Cerberus

|Hercules approaches Cerberus as Athena looks on.

Note the doric column and frieze used to indicate the palace of Hades. Andocides Painter (Paris, Louvre)

. . . And my Conductor, with his spans extended,Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled, He threw it into those rapacious gullets(Inferno VI 25-37)

Cerberus in Dante’s InfernoEtching by Gustave Doré (1832-1883)

Other Descents: Theseus

Heracles Rescuing TheseusFrom the Chair of Forgetfulness

Aeneas’ Katabasis

Sibyl leading Aeneas through the UnderworldJan Breughel II (1601-1678) Brussels, Royal Museum of Ancient Art of Belgium

Orpheus and Eurydice

Relief Sculpture, c. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. (From L to R: Hermes, Eurydice, Orpheus)

Orpheus Leading Eurydice. Camille Corot, 1861. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.