Descent To The Underworld
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Descent To The Underworld
A katabasis or catabasis ( grc, κατάβασις, from "down" and "go") is a journey to the underworld. Its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and Classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades. The term is also used in a broad sense of any journey to the realm of the dead in other mythological and religious traditions. A katabasis is similar to a ''nekyia'' or necromancy, where someone experiences a vision of the underworld or its inhabitants; a ''nekyia'' does not generally involve a physical visit, however. One of the most famous examples is that of Odysseus, who performs something on the border of a ''nekyia'' and a katabasis in book 11 of ''The Odyssey''; he visits the border of the realms before calling the dead to him using a blood ritual, with it being disputed whether he was at the highest realm of the underworld or the lowest edge of the living world where he performed this. Overvie ...
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Alessandro Allori - Odysseus Questions The Seer Tiresias
Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Alessandro * Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter * Alessandro Baricco (born 1958), Italian novelist * Alessandro Bega (born 1991), Italian tennis player * Alessandro Bordin (born 1998), Italian footballer * Alessandro Botticelli (1445–1510), Italian painter * Alessandro Bovo (born 1969), Italian water polo player * Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795), alias of occultist and adventurer Giuseppe Balsamo * Alessandro Calcaterra (born 1975), Italian water polo player * Alessandro Calvi (born 1983), Italian swimmer * Alessandro Cattelan (born 1980), Italian television preesenter * Alessandro Cortini (born 1976), Italian musician * Alessandro Criscuolo (1937–2020), Italian judge * Alessandro Del Piero (born 1974), Italian footballer * Alessandro Di Munno (born 2000), Italian footballer * Alessandro Evangelist ...
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Anabasis
Anabasis (from Greek ''ana'' = "upward", ''bainein'' = "to step or march") is an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country. Anabase and Anabasis may also refer to: History * ''Anabasis Alexandri'' (''Anabasis of Alexander''), a history of the campaigns of Alexander the Great by Greek historian Arrian * ''Anabasis'' (Xenophon), a history of the expedition of Cyrus the Younger by Greek writer Xenophon * Siberian Anabasis, a literary name for the Czechoslovak Legions' transit through Siberia during the Russian Civil War, in reference to the epic of Xenophon Poetry and fiction *', a 1924 poem by Saint-John Perse * ''Anabasis'', a 1930 translation of Saint-John Perse's poem by T. S. Eliot * ''Anabasis'', poem by Paul Celan, published 1963 in "Die Niemandsrose" * ''Anabasis'', a 1994 novel by Ellen Gilchrist * '' Anabasis'', a novel of Hellenistic Afghanistan and India by Geoffrey Storey. A work of historical fiction set in Bactria Music * Anabasis, a fantasy musi ...
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Tiresias
In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; grc, Τειρεσίας, Teiresías) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. Tiresias participated fully in seven generations in Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself. Mythology Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted by Luc Brisson, fall into three groups: the first recounts Tiresias' sex-change episode and later his encounter with Zeus and Hera; the second group recounts his blinding by Athena; the third, all but lost, seems to have recounted the misadventures of Tiresias. Blindness and gift of prophecy Like other oracles, how Tiresias obtained his information varied: sometimes, he would receive visions; other times he would listen for the songs of birds, or ask for a description of visions and pictures appearing within the smoke of burnt offerings or entrails, and so interpret them. ...
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Anticlea
In Greek mythology, Anticlea or Anticlia (; Ancient Greek: ''Ἀντίκλεια'', literally "without fame") was a queen of Ithaca as the wife of King Laërtes. Family Anticlea was the daughter of Autolycus and Amphithea. The divine trickster and messenger of the gods, Hermes, was her paternal grandfather. Anticlia was the mother of Odysseus by Laërtes (though some say by SisyphusHyginus, ''Fabulae'' 201; Plutarch, ''Quaestiones Graecae'' 43; Suida, s.v. Sisyphus'). Ctimene was also her daughter by her husband Laertes. Mythology Early years According to some later sources, including a fragment of Aeschylus' lost tragedy ''The Judgment of Arms'', Odysseus was the child of Anticlea by Sisyphus, not Laërtes. In this version of the story, Autolycus, an infamous trickster, stole Sisyphus' cattle. At some point, Sisyphus recognized his cattle while on a visit to Autolycus and subsequently seduced (or, in some versions, raped) Anticlea, Autolycus' daughter. Odysseus was th ...
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Elpenor
In Greek mythology, Elpenor (; Ancient Greek: Ἐλπήνωρ, gen.: Ἐλπήνορος), also spelled Elpinor , was the youngest comrade of Odysseus. While on the island of Circe, he became drunk and decided to spend the night on the roof. In the morning he slipped on the ladder, fell, and broke his neck, dying instantly. Odyssey, Book X Mythology Elpenor was not especially notable for his intelligence or strength, but he survived the Trojan War, and appears in the ''Odyssey''. He is the youngest man to survive the Laestrygonians. While Odysseus was staying on Aeaea, Circe's island, Elpenor became drunk and climbed onto the roof of Circe's palace to sleep. The next morning, waking upon hearing his comrades making preparations to travel to Hades, he forgot he was on the roof and fell, breaking his neck, and died in the act. Odysseus and his men apparently noticed his absence, but they were too busy to look for him. When Odysseus arrived in Hades, Elpenor was the first shade to ...
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Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero cult, Greek hero Odysseus, king of Homer's Ithaca, Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a Suitors of Penelope, group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BCE and, by the mid-6th century BCE, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In Classic ...
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Nekyia
In ancient Greek cult-practice and literature, a ''nekyia'' or ''nekya'' ( grc, νέκυια, νεκυία; νεκύα ) is a "rite by which ghosts were called up and questioned about the future," i.e., necromancy. A ''nekyia'' is not necessarily the same thing as a ''katabasis''. While they both afford the opportunity to converse with the dead, only a ''katabasis'' is the actual, physical journey to the underworld undertaken by several heroes in Greek and Roman myth. In common parlance, however, the term "nekyia" is often used to subsume both types of event, so that by Late Antiquity for example " Olympiodorus ... claimed that three latonicmyths were classified as nekyia (an underworld story, as in Homer's ''Odyssey'' book 11)". Questioning ghosts A number of sites in Greece and Italy were dedicated wholly or in part to this practice. "The Underworld communicated with the earth by direct channels. These were caverns whose depths were unplumbed, like that of Heraclea Pontic ...
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Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations, the biggest examples of which are Christianity and Islam, whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the dharmic religions. Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven, paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld. Other religions, which do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely describe an abode of the dead, the grave, a neutral place that is located under the surface of Earth (for example, see Kur, Hades, and Sheol). Such places are sometimes equated with the English word ''hell'', though a more correct translatio ...
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Hades
Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth, long the province of Gaia, available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the underworld, standing to his side. The Etruscan god Aita and the Roman gods Dis Pater and Orcus were eventually taken as equivalent to Hades and merged into Pluto, a Latinisation of Plouton ( grc-gre, , Ploútōn), itself a euphemistic title often given to Had ...
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Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western ...
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Anchises
Anchises (; grc-gre, Ἀγχίσης, Ankhísēs) was a member of the royal family of Troy in Greek and Roman legend. He was said to have been the son of King Capys of Dardania and Themiste, daughter of Ilus, who was son of Tros. He is most famous as the father of Aeneas and for his treatment in Virgil's ''Aeneid''."Anchises" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 377. Anchises' brother was Acoetes, father of the priest Laocoön.Hyginus, ''Fabulae'135/ref> He was a mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman goddess Venus). Zeus made her fall in love with Anchises while he was herding sheep at the foot of Mount Ida.Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). One version is that Aphrodite pretended to be a Phrygian princess and seduced him, only to later reveal herself and inform him that they would have a son named Aeneas; Aphrodite had warned Anchises that if he told anyone about her being the mot ...
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Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children (such as Hector and Paris). He is a minor character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad''. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's ''Aeneid'', where he is cast as an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. He became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse god Vidarr of the Æsir.The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlson Translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur 916Prologue II at Internet Sacred Texts Archive. Accessed 11/14/17 Etymology Aeneas is the Romanization of the hero's original Greek name (''Aineías''). Aineías is first introduced in the ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'' when ...
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