Descent

Mesopotamian tradition

• Descent appears in Mesopotamian tradition.

  Gilgamesh’s journeys include waters and a far-away of the dead. The descent is a Mesopotamian epic problem.

  from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)

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• Descent is connected to Underworld.

  Descent is the act; underworld is a name for some destinations. Not every below is the same map.

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• Vesica piscis is used in Descent.

  In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems, a figure in a vesica-piscis aureole has the dragon of sin twined around it among descent-of-spirit subjects — the vesica frames that descent composition.

  from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

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• Heaven is associated with Descent.

  In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediæval Christian Art, the Spirit’s descent upon our Lord is shown with heaven again represented as a circle studded with stars — heaven is that starry circle of the descent scene.

  from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

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• Hell is associated with Descent.

  In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediæval Christian Art, Christ’s Descent into Hell to rescue the souls of the Old World is a favourite medieval subject, with Christ armed with cross and banner at the monster’s mouth — hell is the place of that descent.

  from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

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Maya tradition

• Descent is associated with Xibalba.

  The Hero Twins go down to Xibalba. That descent is a Kʼicheʼ court of trials.

  from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996

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Egyptian religion

• Descent is associated with Osiris.

  Egyptian funerary hope is a going through the below toward Osiris’s condition. The itinerary is a descent with a solar night road.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

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Shinto

• Descent appears in Shinto.

  The Kojiki sends Izanagi down into Yomi after Izanami, and later sends the heavenly grandchild down to the reed-plain land. Named descent jobs in that compilation, not Gilgamesh’s far-away alone and not Xibalba.

  from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968

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Hellenic religion

• Descent appears in Hellenic religion.

  Pausanias recounts katabasis and underworld-approach speech—Trophonius, Acheron neighbors, and hero descents—inside Hellenic itinerary. A named descent in that periegesis, not Roman underworld chrome alone and not hades place belongs_to alone.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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• Demeter is associated with Descent.

  The hymn is a search that reaches toward the below because a daughter has been taken there. The descent is Persephone’s and the mother’s grief, not Gilgamesh’s.

  from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Demeter, c. 7th–6th century BCE

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• Hades is associated with Descent.

  Greek katabasis is often a trip to Hades. The Hymn to Demeter reaches toward that below because a daughter has been taken.

  from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Demeter, c. 7th–6th century BCE

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Roman religion

• Descent appears in Roman religion.

  Virgil’s Aeneid Book 6 seats Aeneas’s descent to the below as a named katabasis. Descent as published concept for that going-down, not Kojiki descent alone and not underworld place restated.

  from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)

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• Roman religion is associated with Descent.

  Aeneas’s katabasis is a Roman epic descent for a father’s counsel and a future. The reason is Virgil’s, not Eleusis and not Gilgamesh.

  from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)

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Celtic tradition

• Annwn is associated with Descent.

  A raid or a visit to Annwn is a going-into an other place. It is not Persephone’s taking and not a Duat weighing.

  from Anonymous (Welsh prose); Sioned Davies (translation) · The Mabinogion, medieval Welsh manuscripts; Davies trans. 2007

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