Nostalgic Voices from the Underworld in Late Byzantine and Early Modern Greek Catabatic Narratives

A catabatic narrative narrates a descent into the Underworld, commonly through a dream or vision. The dream acts as a portal, linking the world of the living with the realm of the dead and creating the ground for confrontations that would otherwise be impossible. Besides emotions like fear and anxiety, these interactions frequently evoke nostalgia for the original conditions of the Upperworld in the participants (the narrator and characters), who are undergoing the transition. This contribution investigates the functions and meanings of nostalgia in two Byzantine catabatic narratives, namely, the anonymous satirical dialogue Timarion, composed in the twelfth century, and Mazarisʼs Journey to Hades, written in the early fifteenth century. Further, it explores nostalgia in three major Early Modern Greek representatives of the genre, namely the dream poem Apokopos by Bergadis, written at the beginning of the fifteenth century, Mournful Rhyme on the Bitter and Insatiable Hades composed by Ioannis Pikatoros, dated to the end of the fifteenth century, and the anonymous work Speech of the Dead King, written at the beginning of the sixteenth century, in Renaissance Crete. First, the contribution examines the semantics of nostalgic expressions, focusing on the earthly and eternal aspects of Paradise as the two primary targets of the emotion in the narratives studied. Second, it investigates the rhetorical aims and cognitive potentials of nostalgic expressions, such as evoking contrition and fostering empathy in the audience. Additionally, the contribution aims to understand the role of nostalgia in the catabatic narratives through the perspectives of their socio-cultural and historical contexts of origin.