Cloaked in Darkness: Feminine Katabasis in Myth and Culture

Abstract

This dissertation asserts that myths of the journey to the underworld in which the protagonist is female have been marginalized in favor of stories in which the descender is male. In laying out the historical basis of the scholarship on the journey to the underworld (the nekyia), the study attributes this prejudice to a Christological bias that has lent prominence to myths in which the narrative follows the pattern of descent and resurrection or return. The dissertation further asserts that, often, female figures who descend to the underworld act in significantly different ways than their male counterparts and that stories of feminine descent commonly break the traditional mold and result in the protagonist remaining in the underworld.

Through religious and cultural analysis and psychological interpretation, the dissertation compares six myths of female descent. Analyses of the nekyia of Ereshkigal, Hel, Izanami, Hine-nui-te-po, Inanna, and Persephone show that female descent narratives are as wide-spread as those of males and illuminate the differences between feminine descent and the traditionally accepted pattern of katabasis. Using both a socio-religious and a Jungian lens, this dissertation focuses on the meanings these figures had for their contemporary believers and may have archetypally for all people.

The study concludes that despite traditional interpretations that see female figures in nekyia myths as incubators for male heroes, female katabtic figures have far more agency than is traditionally granted to them and that their remaining in the underworld results in a taking up of sovereignty. It finds that these female figures, far from being “defeated” by the underworld, cloak themselves in its power and come to abide there, making it their home. The conclusions drawn in this dissertation illuminate the contribution to be made to nekyia studies by the inclusion of female stories, as well as the diversity of ways in which descent without anabasis is not only a viable, but powerful part of the nekyia.