Tales from the Enchanted Forest

R.F Kuang’s highly anticipated novel, Katabasis, was published recently and it has brought on a wave of discourse around journeying into the underworld as a physical and metaphorical storytelling device! ‘Katabasis’ itself is a Greek term for the hero’s descent into the underworld usually referring to Hades. We have covered many stories where our hero or protagonist journeys into the underworld as a symbol of death and resurrection (seasons) like Persephone in the Greek Hymn to Demeter, and the Sumerian stories of Inanna. We’ve also covered stories which feature voluntary travel to the underworld to fetch something, such as in…