The Catabasis of Mattie Ross in the Coens’ True Grit

This paper argues that the Coen Brothers’ 2010 version of True Grit makes innovations to the original novel by Charles Portis that evoke the Greek myth of the descent to the underworld, or catabasis. Mattie Ross, a fourteen-year-old girl on mission to find her father’s murderer, embarks on a quest that ends with her falling into a snake pit after she kills the culprit. The experience can be likened to a heroic quest, especially in the context of coming-of-age myth and ritual. I submit that this mytheme is combined with echoes of the abduction of Persephone by Hades, a very particular version of the catabatic mythology that is frequently associated with girls’ puberty and marriage.