Both the Misadventures of Odysseus and the Descent to the Netherworld are literary genres whose subject matter predates that of the Odyssey, certainly from the Middle Bronze Age ±1,500 BC (since the Odyssey and its sister composition, the Iliad, are products of the Late Bronze Age, ±1,000 BC). As regards the Misadventures of Odysseus, the story-line will have been inspired on the wanderings of the Argonauts through the Adriatic Archipelago consigned in the Argonautica of Orpheus (now lost to us); and, in like manner, the Descent to the Netherworld recalls the stay of Euridice, wife of Orpheus, in the Otherworld.

The Descent to the Netherworld occurs exactly at the midpoint in the Misadventures of Odysseus, as if this inventory or social register of souls in the Netherworld were grafted onto the general story-line as a somewhat superfluous garnish. However, the symbolism of the visit is obvious: Odysseus has sunk to the depths of the sea at the place where the Seirenes live (and thus the songs he sings to his listeners—for Odysseus himself is the prime informant of his woes—are tinted throughout with divinity?); he has literally stepped on the threshold of the Otherworld before being given back to life, and cast forth on the shores of Phorkis.

Allegorically (or Freudianly, perhaps), Odysseus has entered the womb of Mother Earth, where all souls reside, as if this region of MAIONIA were homologous with the female genitalia: a long and narrow valley separates two smaller mounts, TMOLOS and TEREIA, both enclosed by the imposing massifs of PELION and DODONA; the Pyrhiphlegethon and Akheron join their waters at Corfinum (Corfino), a name which recalls that "the rock of Korax (xiii, 408) and not far away, down river, Kokytos, where is the source of the Pescara River, a cognate of words like "cocoon", kuca "home", cocina "kitchen", which connote the idea of a hollow, and which yielded Pópoli (k > p), a place replete with large and small natural caves from which emanate ill-smelling sulfurous gases; here reside the Kimmeroi, "who never see the sun" (xi, 14), for they are the souls of the postdeluvian ancestors of civilized humanity.

Kirke speaks to Odysseus, saying (x, 503 et pas.):

1. But when in thy ship thou hast now crossed the stream of Oceanus, where is a level shore and the groves of Persephoneótall poplars, and willows that shed their fruitóthere do thou beach thy ship by the deep eddying Oceanus...

2. ...go thyself to the dank house of Hades. There into Acheron flow Periphlegethon and Cocytus, which is a branch of the water of the Styx;

3. and there is a rock, and the meeting place of the two roaring river

4. ...dig a pit of a cubitís length this way and that, and around it pour a libation to all the dead, first with milk and honey, thereafter with sweet wine, and in the third place with water, and sprinkle thereon white barley meal...