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Aeneas’ entrance into the Underworld
November 14, 2006 at 10:13 am by mahud
The famous sibyl Deiphobe inhabited a cave near the temple of Apollo, where she would utter prophecies while under god’s influence, and guard the entrance to the realm of death.
She warned Aeneas of the dreadful inescapable nature of the underworld, and advised him to first obtain the golden branch, sacred to the queen of death, to safeguard his return to the land of the living.
The luminous branch was concealed within the dark grove of the moon goddess Diana, and grew — like mistletoe — upon a certain tree that, according to Virgil (from whose epic the myth comes), was actually two trees. Only the worthy were able to sever the golden branch, and when severed, another would grow back in its place.
After Aeneas obtained the golden branch, he was led by Deiphobe down to the corridors of death, with the assurance that he would return.
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