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facilis descensus Averno

easy is the descent to Avernus, for the door to the

underworld lies open both day and night.

But to retrace your steps and return to

the breezes above-- that's the task, that's the toil.”

Aeneid Book 6 Lines 126 -129

The significance of Aeneas’s visit to the underworld

Posted 27/3/07

 

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Aeneid Book 6, Lines 126 to 129

facilis descensus Averno; noctes atque

dies patet atri ianua Ditis; sed revocare

gradum superasque evadere ad auras,

hoc opus, hic labor est.

 

 

 

Easy is the descent to Avernus, for the door to the underworld lies open both day and night. But to retrace your steps and return to the breezes above-- that's the task, that's the toil.

 

(Averno is a lake in a volcanic crater near Naples in Italy which gives out sulphurous fumes. This was once believed to be the gateway to Hell)

 

Probably Virgil’s most famous lines. Aeneas is at the gateway to the underworld and is about to enter. In the underworld he meets his father Anchises and his jilted lover princess Dido, who is not very pleased to see him.

Entering the underworld is a task undertaken by many other heroes of classical mythology including Odysseus, Heracles, and Orpheus. Homer’s underworld of the Odyssey is however very different from Virgil’s. The entry to and return from the underworld is significant at many levels.

In Karmic terms Aeneas is confronting something he must go through in this incarnation but because of his status as a hero and example, he will undertake the task and he has very chance of successful return. The warning is clear that the task is fraught with danger and that lesser men do not succeed or don’t bother. Fools think it is easy and will obviously get themselves into trouble.

In terms of the Aeneid story, the effect on Aeneas of his visit and return is that he is in a way reborn with a greater awareness and continues with his epic life journey. Failure would probably mean that he would continue life but become like the Hanged Man of the Tarot, having seen another world but not having successfully returned to this one, he is no longer comfortable in either.

Following this analogy, if he failed to return, he would lose his sanity. This is often held out as an inherent danger in many forms of occult practice.

The visit to the underworld also functions as a form of clearing. Aeneas has unfinished business with his father which he resolves and questions are answered. With Princess Dido he acknowledges the bad karma he has generated. Dido’s anger is a skeleton in the cupboard, a representation of the karmic debt that Aeneas will eventually have to pay.

There is also an element of Palingenesis in Aeneas’s visit to the underworld. This is a belief that one can call on one’s ancestors as a resource as Aeneas takes advice from his father. In the Greek tradition your ancestors might fight along side you in battle.

Palingenesis in all forms seems to have generally dropped out of western thinking.

 

Aeneid Complete Text & Quick Reference

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