11th book of the Odyssey and the Aeneid by Virgil
Katabasis can be defined as a descent of some type; like moving downhill, a military retreat, sinking of the sun and winds or a trip to the underground. There exist numerous related meanings in rhetoric, poetry and modern psychology. This essay seeks to compare two katabasis i.e. the eleventh book of the odyssey and Aeneid.
In the two pieces, the heroes to the underworld are articulated exactly in the middle of the poems. They are extremely similar however the differences in the purposes as why the two are composed and the societies for which they have been created for means that those visits are basically different although many similar events may occur in the two. Odyssey was by Homer, was written for entertainment reasons for the wealth Homer's time (Tracy 68). This story is an oral tradition that could be altered to praise any particular patron by changing the arrangement of the catalogue of ships or the titles of those in the underworld. Nevertheless, the flattery did not interfere plot's message. The poem is about Odysseus as a person. It defines his great effort to win home. The story ends when Odysseus gets home. Odyssey is a human story narrated about a man who focuses on the tangible, powerful and real things like love, sex, home, war, revenge, wealth, justice, maturing and peace. The character does not see them as a part of some immense embroidery of glory that will live forever. The book is all about a man, the gods, fate, greatness, hubris, heroism, religion among other themes.
On the contrary, The Aeneid is unfinished and was written for a single great patron (Augustus) who was the first citizen of Rome (Virgil 8). This Katabasis has a political agenda rather than mere entertainment – the poem is filled with propaganda that expounds virtues of Augustus' conservatism that is "back to basics" which was meant to restore Rome after extensive periods of civil turbulence. The Aeneid is about fate, god, hubris, the greatness of Rome and religion. The two poems use similar scenes throughout the poem. For example; odysseys meets his mother in the underworld and tries to embrace her just to embrace air and begs him her not to withdraw from his grasp. Similarly, Aeneas is unable to meet his mother in the underworld because she is a goddess. The two poems are similar and at the same time different in a number of ways like the Aeneas' meeting with the father is an attempt to show the Trojan hero to be greater than the Greek. Anchises is demonstrated to have more status than Odysseus' mother and Aeneas also depicts greater status compared to Odysseus since he is half immortal whereas both Odysseus' parents are mortal.
In the two poems, both men met their unburied friends. Odysseus meets Elpenor who fell from the top on Circe's island (Tracy 68). For Aeneas, Palinaruas is the friend who was sacrificed for their safe passage. He was killed by vagabonds in the shores of Italy. Both of the two unburied friends beg for burial. Both the unburied friend in the poem begs for burial and Odysseus assures he will return to circles and bury his lost comrade. Sybil tells off Palinaurus, but promises he will be buried by the locals and that the place of this burial will bear him name. Both the unburied men are contented with the promise.
Visit to the underworld by the two men in the poems gives the author a chance to portray ideas regarding life and death. Independently, Homer states that the meaning of life is living while death is a long wait of unhappiness as an eternal spirit with the exception of heroes like Herakles who was taken by Olympus. This is a reflection of the values Homer treasures- for men, having affairs, fighting, journeying and being in peace with the gods so that one can die a glorious and peaceful death. For women, being a wife to a great husband and a mother to great sons and a daughter to a great father and keeping an orderly home waiting patiently for your men to return. As for Vergil, life means being "pius" sufficiently to earn oneself a good place in underworld so that when all sins are watched away one will live eternally in he Elysian Fields. With regard to the way Vergil talks about sinfulness of the body, it is obvious something squalid exists in his mind, which should be got over swiftly and peacefully for those who are splendid even when alive. This view is apparent and reflects in the underlying themes of both poems. Virgil's poem emphasizes on the greatness of Rome, religion, gods and piety and indicates that there is a prize greater than life i.e. the life accorded to persons who live "pius" lives (Virgil 8). Arguably, this is why Aeneas must be a greater hero in all way to Odysseus; most of all because they will live a magnificent life with Anchises in Elysian Fields and his entire descendents will reign eternally. In the two pieces the visits to the underworld is focal and encapsulate in numerous ways the entire meaning of the poems.
Work cited
Tracy, Stephen V. The story of the Odyssey. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1990. Print.
Virgil. The Aeneid. USA: Filiquarian Publishing, 2007. Print.
