Katabasis

The title Katabasis refers to a hero’s journey to the underworld. It comes from the Greek words for “down” and “go.” While the word katabasis describes the basic plot of the novel, it also describes a long literary tradition of mythological descents, which the novel continuously refers to in a metafictional manner. In order to prepare for their own katabasis, Alice and Peter read many canonical katabasis stories to try to develop a map of Hell.

Classical Greek and Roman literature contains many examples of katabasis. In Book 11 of Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus travels to the border of the underworld to commune with spirits. Virgil’s invocation of katabasis in Book 6 of The Aeneid, and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice—retold by both Virgil and Ovid—are explicitly referenced in the novel. Ovid’s Metamorphoses contains several katabasis, including the descent of Prosperine (Persephone). While Katabasis does not explicitly reference Christianity outside of its discussion of Dante, Jesus’s Harrowing of Hell, described in the Book of Peter and other extra-biblical sources, can also be considered a katabasis. In all of these katabasis, the central figure descends into Hell to retrieve something material, usually another person, people, or spirits.