catabasis

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A form of katabasis — A mytheme or trope in which the hero embarks on a journey to the underworld.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

nouncatabasis (countable and uncountable, plural catabases)

plural catabases

  1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative spelling of katabasis.

    The Inferno is one of the most famous examples of catabasis in the Western Tradition.

    2019, Gregory L. Ulmer, KONSULT: Theopraxesis, page 83
    2 more examples

    The ancient Greeks and the peoples of remote antiquity already knew of journeys of the soul, but these were often journeys to the infernal regions, descents into hell, catabases, with obstacles, such as encounters with various monsters, menaces of all sorts, the crossing of the bridge of the dead or the passage of mysterious rivers on foot or on horseback.

    1923, Georges Berguer, translated by E. S. Brooks and Van Wyck Brooks, Some aspects of the life of Jesus from the psychological and psycho-analytic point of view, page 58

    Figure 37 also demonstrates the use of catabasis, or descending motion, in the parts for trumpets, pianos, and low strings.

    2007, Victoria Adamenko, Victoria Bowles, Neo-mythologism in Music, page 101
Cite this entry
APA

catabasis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/catabasis

MLA

“catabasis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/catabasis. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “catabasis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/catabasis.

Source: catabasis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.