Paul Bishop is William Jacks Chair of Modern Languages in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Terence Dawson is an independent scholar, following a career of teaching in the UK and Singapore. He has a special interest in the relation between literature, music, and the visual arts.

Leslie Gardner is Director of the international literary agency Artellus Limited, based in London, UK. She is a founding member of the International Association of Jungian Studies and is currently a Fellow in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex.

1. Introduction: Is the only way up? Part I: Katábasis in Greek and Latin Literature 2. Psycho-cosmic descent in ancient Greece: from abyss to self-containment 3. Katabasis in reverse: Heraclitus, the archaic, and the abyss 4. Virgil, epicureanism, and unseemly behaviour 5. The Neoplatonic katabasis of the soul to the world of the senses: Language as a tool for regaining self-consciousness 6. Acting out, science fiction and Lucian's True HistoryPart II: Katábasis, Goddesses, and Saints 7. Inanna's descent to the netherworld and analytical psychology: What has the mistress of all the lands done? 8. Katabasis in an ancient Indian myth: Savitri Encounters Yama 9. Katabasis in middle eastern female hagiography: a post-Jungian perspective Part III: Katábasis in Theory 10. Raising hell: Freud's katabatic metaphors in The Interpretation of Dreams 11. Orestes, Katabasis, and aggrieved masculine entitlement 12. Regression, Nekyia, and involution in the thought of Jung and Deleuze Epilogue Salon Noir