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)

  appears in · sourced · documented

• Descent is connected to Underworld.

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

  connected to · interpretive · documented

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

  associated with · sourced · culturally specific

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

  associated with · sourced · culturally specific

Hellenic religion

• 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

  associated with · sourced · documented

• 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

  associated with · sourced · documented

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

  associated with · sourced · culturally specific

Roman religion

• 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)

  associated with · sourced · documented