Catabasis (from the Greek κατάϐασις, “descent”) is the descent of a living person to the Underworld. The theme is already present in the epic of Gilgamesh, written in Babylonia in around 1700–1800 BC. The Odyssey narrates the katabasis of Ulysses (or rather a Nekyia, a necromantic practice of communication with the dead), performed to consult the shade of Tiresias, the blind prophet, about his destiny. Other Greek myths recount that Dionysus descends in search of his mother; Theseus descends rashly with his friend Pirithous to abduct Persephone, Heracles to capture the hound Cerberus, and again to rescue Theseus. Orpheus almost manages to bring his bride Eurydice back to life. Psyche, the wife of Eros, descends to the kingdom of Persephone to obtain a dose of her beauty. 

The topos is taken up by Virgil in the VI book of the Aeneid, in which the hero, accompanied by the Cumaean Sibyl, descends into the Avernus to meet his father Anchises. Christ’s descent into the Underworld, narrated in Biblical texts and in the Apocryphal Gospels and included in the profession of apostolic faith, is not a true catabasis since Christ is dead when he descends to liberate the Patriarchs and the righteous pre-Christians. 

Before Dante, Christian literature described journeys to the land of the dead mainly as visions: the vision of St Paul, the voyage of Saint Brendan, or the vision of Tundale. In medieval Islamic tradition, the Kitab al-Miraj and the works inspired by it tell of Muhammad’s journey to Hell, after having ascended to Heaven. However, the most brilliant catabasis is the one imagined by Dante in The Divine Comedy, where he recounts his personal journey through the three realms of the dead: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.