katabasis

American  

[kuh-tab-uh-sis] / kəˈtæb ə sɪs /

noun

plural

katabases

1. a march from the interior of a country to the coast, as that of the 10,000 Greeks after their defeat and the death of Cyrus the Younger at Cunaxa.

2. a retreat, especially a military retreat.

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katabasis British  

/ kəˈtæbəsɪs /

noun

1. the retreat of the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger, after his death at Cunaxa, from the Euphrates to the Black Sea in 401–400 _bc under the leadership of Xenophon: recounted in his Anabasis Compare anabasis

2. literary a retreat

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Etymology

Origin of katabasis

1830–40; < Greek katábasis a going down, descent, equivalent to kataba- (stem of katabaínein to go down) + -sis -sis. See kata-, basis

Example Sentences

This week’s poem begins its difficult katabasis by way of an immunological metaphor.

From The Guardian • Jun. 15, 2020

In Greek mythology tales of haunting journeys down the rivers of the dead are sufficiently common that they have their own collective noun: katabasis.

From The Guardian • May 8, 2019

This katabasis is supposed to have begun in the early '50s, with the Women series.

From Time Magazine Archive

We easily comprehend the fact that the symbolic aim of the previously mentioned katabasis always has a maternal character; earth, hole, sea, belly of fish, etc., that all are symbols for mother and womb.

From Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts by Jelliffe, Smith Ely