Mythological Characters
Mythological characters who make visits to the underworld include:
- Ancient Egyptian
- Egyptian Osiris (see also Egyptian Book of the Dead)
- The Magician Meryre in Papyrus Vandier (Posener, 1985)
- Ancient Greek and Roman
- Adonis/Tammuz is mourned and then recovered by his consort/mother Aphrodite/Inanna/Ishtar
- The god Dionysus, to rescue Semele from Hades
- Heracles, for his twelfth labor, on which occasion he also rescued Theseus
- The god Hermes, to rescue Persephone from Hades
- Orpheus, to rescue Eurydice from Hades
- Persephone and Demeter
- Psyche
- Odysseus
- Aeneas, to speak to his father in the Aeneid
- Theseus and Pirithous try to abduct Persephone; they fail, and only Theseus is rescued by Heracles
- Ancient Sumerian
- Enkidu, in a tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, usually considered a later addition to the tale
- Gilgamesh descends to the underworld to meet Utnapishtim in a quest for immortality
- Inanna descends to the underworld with gifts to pass through the seven gates of the underworld
- Judeo-Christianity
- The biblical story of Old Testament Joseph is paralleled to the myth in Panbabylonism, notably in Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers
- Jesus, during the Harrowing of Hell
- Dante, in The Divine Comedy: Inferno
- Jesus, in Pistis Sophia
- Norse paganism and Finnish mythology
- Baldr
- Hermod
- Helreið Brynhildar
- Lemminkäinen's rescue from Tuonela by his mother
- Welsh mythology
- Pwyll's descent into Annwn in the Welsh Mabinogion
- Preiddeu Annwfn, King Arthur's expedition to Annwfn as recounted in the Book of Taliesin
- Other
- Japanese mythology: Izanagi and Izanami in Yomi
- Mayan mythology: Hunahpu and Xbalanque: Maya Hero Twins
- Mahayana Buddhism: the bodhisattva Kuan Yin's descent into a hell-like region after taking on the bad karma of her executioner in pity
- Vedic religion: Ushas (dawn) is liberated from the Vala by Indra; Emperor Yudhisthira descends into Naraka
- Ohlone mythology (Native American): Kaknu fights Body of Stone
- Yoruba mythology: Obatala, the Rising and dying god of Ile Ife, the Yoruba cultural centre
Read more about this topic: Descent To The Underworld
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