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 Elpenor
Odysseus and Tiresias
Odysseus also meets Agamamnon and Achilles
See Odyssey XI
Other Descents:
Heracles and Cerberus
Museum Collection: Musée du
Louvre, Paris, France
Catalogue Number: Louvre
E701
Beazley Archive Number: N/A
Ware: Caeretan Black Figure
Shape: Hydria
Painter: -Date: ca 530 BC
Period: 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)
Cerberus in
Dante’s Inferno
Etching by
Gustave Doré
(1832-1883)
. . . 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)
Other Descents: Theseus
Heracles Rescuing Theseus
From the Chair of
Forgetfulness
Aeneas’ Katabasis
Sibyl leading Aeneas through the Underworld
Jan 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.