@kvit probably thats pretty generic, sacrificing a god or idol and having it reborn wpuld be wierder, it doesnt seem like the sacrifice and the rebirth are associated for romans, this is more a christian idea, maybe nietzchean im sure theres some german philosopher who had something like this.
it might be more appropriate to say araragi is joyrneying to hell to aquire someone and its only by being half dead that he can do that, remember that at that temple is was the body of the god who was a dead child and that is ononoki and that ononoki and mayoi are very clearly associated, mayoi having died and ononoki not yet reborn.
there are mamy myths of journing into hell, japan has them too, through a cave, of course in the mountains and in the wilderness


also while mayoi is stacking stones to climb up to heaven in the buddhist canon a stack of stones is a cairn which is a semi sacred marker for traversing the wilderness, and this is the start of inverting mayois role of causing lostness as araragi being in hell is very lost and because of her but she leads him out