katabasis (kuh-TAB-uh-sis): The literature of
descent (from the Greek verb for ‘going down’,
katabaino^). Katabasis: ‘a Journey of the Dead made
by a living person in the flesh who returns to our world to tell the tale’
(Clark, R. J., Catabasis: Vergil and the Wisdom-Tradition, B. R.
Gruner Publishing Company, 1979; p.32).
The first instance in Western literature of katabasis is that of Odysseus descending to Hades. He meets many souls there, including his mother and Teiresias, the blind prophet. Book 11 of The Odyssey, which relates the tale, is referred to as "The Nekuia." Orpheus, Hercules, Theseus, Aeneus, Vergil, and Dante are also all said to have made such a trip. See also the first word of Plato's Republic "kateben."
