Entertainment / Literature / Psychopompos: A spirit-guide who leads or escorts a soul into the realm of the dead. Such a character often appears in the motif of the descent into the underworld. Examples of a psychopompos would be deities like Hermes and Charon in Greek mythology, or the characters of Virgil and Beatrice in Dante's Inferno. (Greek, 'soul procession' or 'soul carrier')
Search Google for Psychopompos:
Entertainment / Literature / Spirit Guide: A conventional figure in mythology, in the medieval visio and in shamanistic myths that serves as (1) a guide to a lost or wandering soul or to (2) a guide to the dreaming psyche of another character. MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Descent Into The Underworld: An archetype or motif in folklore, religion, mythology, or literature in which the protagonist must descend into the realm of the dead (usually located beneath the earth in hell, Elysium, or Tartarus) MORE