catabasis

Noun

katabasis (countable and uncountable, plural katabases)

1. A mytheme or trope in which the hero embarks on a journey to the underworld.
   • The ancient Greeks and the peoples of remote antiquity already knew of journeys of the soul, but these were often journeys to the infernal regions, descents into hell, catabases, with obstacles, such as encounters with various monsters, menaces of all sorts, the crossing of the bridge of the dead...1923, Georges Berguer, translated by E. S. Brooks and Van Wyck Brooks, Some aspects of the life of Jesus from the psychological and psycho-analytic point of view, page 58
2. (broadly, humorous) Any journey downwards or fall.
   • How did the man in the moon come down? The distance between the earth and moon is by no means inconsiderable, and other obstacles “too tedious to mention,” lie in the way of this famous Catabasis, which his lunar majesty is declared to have performed.1842 February, “The Man in the Moon”, in Yale Literary Magazine, volume 7, number 4, page 205
3. A retreat, especially a military one.
   • 2dly, That of a great military expedition, offering the same romantic features[…]which mark[…]the Russian anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon.1837, Thomas de Quincey, “Revolt of the Tartars”, in Collected Writings, volume 7, published 1890, page 369

   Antonyms:

   anabasis

4. A journey from the interior of a country to the coast.
   • As the French Tenth Army shattered like the porcelain shell of a Faberge egg, British and Polish expeditionary forces that had supported the French hastily withdrew toward the Channel coast—technically it was a katabasis, the opposite of the ancient military term anabasis, which meant a march to...2008, The Building: A Biography of the Pentagon, page 56
5. (rare) The presence of downward (drainage or katabatic) winds.
   • Sasttrugi permit the identification of regions of developed katabasis and their direction, and therefore the general relief features in certain Antarctic regions.1967, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports, page 1868