A Trip To The Underworld

Any Greek hero worth their salt makes a trip to the Underworld at
some point during their adventures. Mary and Charlotte follow in
their footsteps, crossing the River Styx to ask: what exactly was
the Underworld? How was it different to the Judeo-Christian
‘Heaven’? And why has the idea of it proven so enduring even though
nobody believes in it?  The Underworld can’t be mapped
(although some scholars have tried) because it didn’t exist, but
there are consistent features in the many myths in which it
features: the River Styx, Charon the Ferryman, the god Hades, his
wife Persephone, and the numberless dead like autumn leaves.
Orpheus and Theseus visited. Hercules - hard man that he was - went
twice. A human princess called Psyche also went in search of her
lover.  Mary and Charlotte dwell on the longish accounts in
Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid. Through these stories they get
some sense of what the Underworld really meant to the Ancient
Greeks and Romans - and what it still means to us. 
 @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube
@insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Mary and
Charlotte recommend some further reading: We focus on Odysseus’
encounter with the dead in Homer, Odyssey Book 11, and on Aeneas’
visit to the underworld in Virgil, Aeneid Book 6. But there are
more!
https://www.thecollector.com/mortals-underworld-katabasis-greek-roman-mythology/
is an online, well-illustrated, article detailing 14 ancient visits
to the underworld. Modern fictions of the underworld based on the
Odyssey are the theme of one chapter of Edith Hall’s Return of
Ulysses (available free at https://edithhall.co.uk/)  Some of
our very recent favourites are Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, “Eurydice”,
from her collection, The World’s Wife (1999) and R. F. Kuang’s
novel Katabasis (2025) Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci
Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia
Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson
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