La katábasis como categoría mítica en el mundo greco-latino

Abstract

The paper analyses the mythical motif of the journey to the underworld in various authors of the greco-roman literature. firstly, it reviews the historical antecedents of the greek conception of the afterlife. secondly, it studies the figure of the hero in the descensus ad inferos myth, in three sections: (1) the search (odysseus, aeneas, parmenides); (2) the physical confrontation (heracles, theseus, alcestis, dionysus); and (3) the verbal confrontation (pollux, persephone, orpheus). finally, from the comparison between the different myths and the evidence of the ritual practices, it outlines a notion of katábasis as a mythical category.