Descensus ad inferos: the myth of the hero's descent to the underworld

Abstract

This study examines the widespread myth of the hero in the underworld in diverse contexts. In the first part of the paper,after, a brief examination of the myth in Greek mythology, severalancient literary texts in which the underworld descent occurs are analysed. Recurrent motifs and imagery are examined in theirpoetic and psycho-social meanings. The second part of the paperconcentrates on the underworld descent as an episode in Homer'sOdyssey and Joyce's Ulisses. The comparison of the descent in these two episodes focuses on both thematic considerations, to relate theepisode to other underworld descents, and narrative questions, torelate the episode to the work of which it forms a part. Ancientand modern approaches to myth and its uses are summarized in theconclusion and an appendix discusses the underworld descent in20th century literature.