Katabasis in Myth and Film

Virgil’s description of the Underworld was a lot more detailed in the Aeneid then the description that Homer gave in the Odyssey. There were also other differences. In the Aeneid, Aeneas was guided to the underworld by the Sibyl. In the Odyssey, Odysseus sailed up to the shore and proceeded alone. When, Aeneas was in the underworld the sections were clearly detailed and the descriptions of the places and the people were very vivid. The description of the underworld in the Odyssey, I believe, gave a much more mysterious, foreboding, and dangerous atmosphere to the underworld. Aeneas also described the souls that were suffering and lost, but they did not have the same perilous and unknowing atmosphere. Aeneas also seemed more at ease in the underworld compared to Odysseus, who often made comments that he feared or thought of the wrath of Persephone and even creatures or monsters that inhabited the world. Homer’s description left much of the underworld not described and its darker parts unknown to both Odysseus and readers. Vergil’s description gave off a clear image of the sections and overall landscape or layout of the underworld, and did not hint as much to what was left unexplained or explored by Aeneas.