Descent of Perithous

The Descent of Perithous is a lost epic poem attributed to
Hesoid. It now survives in a very fragmented state. The poem recounted the journey
that Theseus and Perithous took into the underworld to retrieve Persephone.
This was to fulfil the pact the two men had made that each would abduct and
marry and daughter of Zeus. Theseus chose Hellen the most beautiful woman of
Greece where as Perithous wanted Persephone.
Survival
The only surviving lines of the poem are a dialogue between Theseus
and the spirit of Meleager who questions the journey of the two heroes. From
this we can gather that as in the Odyssey when a hero visits the underworld they
communicate with the spirits of the dead. This can also be seen in the
fragments and summaries of the lost poem the Heracleia by Panyassis.
The Minyas
Another poem dealing with the same area is the Minyas. This surviving
portion of this poem covers the same speech and the two are considered to be
the same poem. However, this hasn’t been proven.Category:Lost Epic Poems
Category:Hesiod