1. The Labyrinth as Katabasis = Descent into the Underworld

2. The Cyclops’ Cave as Katabasis

3. Odsysseus’ Descent into the Underworld
Odysseus and Elpenor
Odysseus and Tiresias
Odysseus also meets Agamamnon and Achilles
See Odyssey XI

4. Other Descents: Heracles and Cerberus
Museum Collection: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France Catalogue Number: Louvre E701 Beazley Archive Number: N/A Ware: Caeretan Black Figure Shape: Hydria Painter: -- Date: ca 530 BC Period: Archaic

5. Cerberus

6. Hercules seizing Cerberus
| Hercules approaches Cerberus as Athena looks on. Note the doric column and frieze used to indicate the palace of Hades. Andocides Painter (Paris, Louvre)

7. Cerberus in Dante’s Inferno
Etching by Gustave Doré ( )
. . . And my Conductor, with his spans extended, Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled, He threw it into those rapacious gullets (Inferno VI 25-37)

8. Other Descents: Theseus
Heracles Rescuing Theseus
From the Chair of Forgetfulness

9. Aeneas’ Katabasis Sibyl leading Aeneas through the Underworld
Jan Breughel II ( )
Brussels, Royal Museum of Ancient Art of Belgium

10. Orpheus and Eurydice
Relief Sculpture, c. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. (From L to R: Hermes, Eurydice, Orpheus)

11. Orpheus Leading Eurydice. Camille Corot, 1861
Orpheus Leading Eurydice. Camille Corot, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

12. Underworld Scenes in Star Wars?

13. In the Death Star Garbage Dump
The Dianogas (fleshy tentacled creatures which feed on waste materials
IV, 32-34

14. In the Wampa’s Cave
V.5

15. In The Rancor’s Cave
VI.10

16. Failure in the Cave
But is it
REALLY FAILURE?
V.29