Katabasis

Quick meaning: Katabasis is a noun meaning (mythology, literature) A mytheme or trope in which the hero embarks on a journey to the underworld.

Meaning

(mythology, literature) A mytheme or trope in which the hero embarks on a journey to the underworld.

More Meanings

1. (by extension, humorous) Any journey downwards or fall.
2. A retreat, especially a military one.
3. A journey from the interior of a country to the coast.
4. (rare) The presence of downward (drainage or katabatic) winds.

Example Sentences

2dly, That of a great military expedition, offering the same romantic features[…]which mark[…]the Russian anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon.

The logic of the underworld is most on show in the Phaedra and the Hercules [of Seneca], which feature the returns of Theseus and Hercules from their katabases.

The depths of his drinking were achieved after Jane left him, but the bathysphere was well on its way down while she was still there. The low point of his catabasis took time to reach, but the steadily descending trajectory is hard to miss.

How did the man in the moon come down? The distance between the earth and moon is by no means inconsiderable, and other obstacles “too tedious to mention,” lie in the way of this famous Catabasis, which his lunar majesty is declared to have performed.

Word Forms

• katabases

Antonyms for katabasis

Common opposites include anabasis.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include catabasis, monomyth, mythos, catasterism, mythologue, theomachia.

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