The descent to the dead

Chapter summary

Odysseus and the companions go down to the ship, launch it into the sea, raise the mast and sails, take on board the animals for the sacrifice, and climb aboard, weeping. Circe sends a favorable wind from behind the prow, a good companion, and they sail all day. At sunset they reach the edge of the Ocean, where the Cimmerians live, covered in mist, never seeing the sun. They beach the ship, take out the animals, and walk along the Ocean to the place Circe indicated. Perimedes and Eurylochus hold the victims, and Odysseus, sword in hand, digs a trench a cubit deep and makes the libations to the dead, of honeyed mixture, wine, water, and white barley meal. He entreats the souls and promises to sacrifice in Ithaca a barren cow, and to Tiresias, apart, a black ram. He cuts the throats of the animals over the trench, the dark blood runs, and the souls gather from Erebus: maidens and young men, old men, girls in fresh mourning, warriors wounded by spears with their armor stained with blood. They surround the trench with a supernatural cry, and a green fear seizes Odysseus. He orders the companions to flay and burn the animals and pray to Hades and Persephone, while he, seated, sword in hand, does not allow the souls to come near the blood before he questions Tiresias.

The first to arrive is the soul of Elpenor, still without burial: his body remained in Circe's house, with no lament and no tomb, because another task was urgent. Odysseus weeps and pities him, and asks how he came there before him, on foot, when Odysseus came by ship. Elpenor answers that a bad fate and the wine destroyed him, and that he fell from the ladder. He begs, in the name of Odysseus's wife, of the father who raised him, and of Telemachus, that on returning to Aeaea Odysseus not leave him without lament or burial, so that he does not become the wrath of the gods against Odysseus: let him burn him with his armor, raise a mound on the seashore so that men to come will know of him, and plant there the oar with which he rowed in life. Odysseus promises to fulfill it. While the two talk, the soul of his mother, Anticleia, also arrives, whom he had left alive when he set out for Troy. Odysseus weeps and pities her, but, because of Circe's order, does not yet let her approach the blood.

The soul of Tiresias arrives, with a golden scepter; he recognizes Odysseus and asks why he came, leaving the light of the sun, to see the dead and a place without joy. He tells him to move the sword away from the trench so that he may drink the blood and speak the truth. Odysseus sheathes the sword, and Tiresias drinks and prophesies: Odysseus seeks a sweet return, but a god will make it harsh, because Poseidon bears rancor against him for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. Still, they will arrive, though they suffer, if Odysseus manages to restrain his own spirit and that of his companions when they reach the island of Thrinacia, where the cattle and sheep of the Sun graze, the god who sees all and hears all. If they leave the herds unharmed and think of the return, they will reach Ithaca. If they harm them, Tiresias foresees the ruin of the ship and the companions, and, if Odysseus escapes, he will return late and badly, without any companion, on another man's ship, and find troubles in his house: arrogant men who devour his goods and court his wife with gifts. But he will punish them, and, after killing the suitors, by stratagem or openly, he must set out with a well-made oar, until he reaches men who know nothing of the sea, who do not eat food mixed with salt, and who know no red-prowed ships or oars that are like wings. The sign will be a wayfarer who calls the oar a winnowing fan: then he shall fix it in the earth, sacrifice to Poseidon a ram, a bull, and a boar, and return home to offer hecatombs to all the gods. Death will come to him from the sea, very gentle, when he is worn down by a gentle old age, with the people happy around him.

Odysseus replies that the gods themselves spun this, and asks how he can make his mother's soul, silent beside the blood, recognize him. Tiresias says that the dead man to whom he lets the blood come near will speak the truth to him, and the one he refuses will withdraw. The seer returns to the house of Hades. Odysseus waits until his mother comes, drinks the blood, and recognizes him. She asks how he, alive, reached the realm of darkness, where great rivers and the Ocean are, which no one crosses on foot without a ship, and whether he comes wandering from Troy, without yet having seen Ithaca or his wife. Odysseus answers that necessity brought him to consult Tiresias, that he has not yet reached the Achaean land nor his own, and that he has suffered since he followed Agamemnon to Troy. He asks of what death she died, a long illness or the arrows of Artemis, and about his father and his son, whether the privilege he held is still theirs or another man holds it, and about his wife, Penelope, whether she stayed with the son and keeps everything, or has married the best of the Achaeans.

Anticleia answers that Penelope remains at home with steadfast spirit, her nights and days consumed in tears. No one holds Odysseus's privilege: Telemachus tends the fields and attends equal feasts, as is fitting for one who judges, and everyone invites him. His father, Laertes, stays in the country and does not come down to the city, without bed or blankets: in winter he sleeps with the servants, in the ashes by the fire, in poor clothes, and in summer on beds of leaves in the vineyard, nursing his grief and longing for his son's return, while old age weighs on him. So she too died: neither Artemis nor illness, but longing for Odysseus, his plans, and the sweetness of her spirit took her life. Odysseus, moved, tries three times to embrace her, and three times she slips from his hands like a shadow or a dream, and his grief grows worse. He asks why she does not stay, so that they may embrace and weep together, or whether Persephone sent only an image so that he would suffer more. Anticleia answers that it is no deception, it is the rule for mortals: without flesh and bones, the fire consumes the body when life leaves it, and the soul flies off like a dream. She bids him return quickly to the light and keep all of this to tell his wife.

Then come the women, wives and daughters of heroes, sent by Persephone, and they gather around the blood. Odysseus decides, with his sword, not to let them all drink together, and each comes in turn and tells her lineage. He sees Tyro, whom Poseidon loved in the form of the river Enipeus, and of whom were born Pelias and Neleus; Antiope, mother of Amphion and Zethus, who built the walls of Thebes; Alcmene, mother of Heracles; Megara; Epicaste, mother of Oedipus, who married her own son without knowing it and, when the gods revealed everything, hanged herself; Chloris, wife of Neleus and mother of Nestor; Leda, mother of Castor and Polydeuces; Iphimedeia, mother of Otus and Ephialtes, the giants who threatened the gods and were killed by Apollo before they had beards; Phaedra, Procris, Ariadne; and Mera, Clymene, and Eriphyle, who accepted gold for her husband's life. Odysseus cuts the list short: he could not name them all, and it is time to sleep.

In Alcinous's palace, all fall silent, bewitched. Queen Arete speaks first: she asks the Phaeacians what they think of the guest, reminds them that he is her guest, and asks that they not send him off in haste nor diminish the gifts, for they have many riches. The old Echeneus supports the queen, and Alcinous decides: the guest will stay until the next day, when he will complete the gifts, and the escort will be the care of all, above all his, since he holds power among the people. Odysseus answers that he would stay a year, if they gave him an escort and gifts, because it would be more advantageous to reach Ithaca with a fuller hand and be more respected. Alcinous says they do not take him for an impostor or a deceiver, but for someone of good judgment, who told his story like an aoidos, and asks whether he saw the divine companions who went to Troy. The night is long, and he would listen until dawn. Odysseus answers that there is a time for many stories and a time for sleep, but if Alcinous still wants to hear, he will tell more painful things: the sufferings of the companions who died afterward, who escaped the war cry of the Trojans and died on the return because of an evil woman.

After Persephone scatters the souls of the women, the soul of Agamemnon arrives, grieving, surrounded by those who died with him in the house of Aegisthus. He drinks the blood, recognizes Odysseus, and stretches out his hands to him, weeping, but he has no more strength or vigor. Odysseus weeps and pities him, and asks what fate of death tamed him: Poseidon, with the wind against the ships, hostile men on land, or a fight over a city? Agamemnon answers that it was neither the sea nor enemies, but Aegisthus, who with his accursed wife called him to the house, gave him dinner, and killed him as one kills an ox at the manger; and the companions were killed like pigs at the feast of a rich man. Odysseus has seen many men killed in combat, but would have grieved more at that sight: the tables and the mixing bowl full, the floor boiling with blood. Agamemnon heard the most lamentable voice, that of Cassandra, daughter of Priam, whom Clytemnestra killed beside him; he, dying, raised his hands from the ground against the sword, and the dog-faced woman turned away and did not close his eyes or his mouth. There is nothing more terrible and more cruel than a woman who plans such deeds, he says, and Clytemnestra spread shame upon herself and upon the women to come, even the good ones. He had expected to return welcomed by his sons and servants.

Odysseus answers that Zeus hated the house of Atreus from the beginning, because of the counsel of women: many died for Helen, and Clytemnestra set an ambush for Agamemnon, who was far away. Agamemnon then advises: never be gentle with your wife, do not reveal to her the whole story you know, tell one part and hide another. But Odysseus's death will not come from a woman, because Penelope, daughter of Icarius, is very sensible and knows well the plans in her mind. They left her a young bride, with a son at her breast, who will now be among men, happy, because his father will see him and his son will embrace him as is just. Agamemnon's wife did not even let him sate his eyes on his son, but killed him first. He also says that Odysseus should bring his ship to his homeland in secret, not openly, because one can no longer trust women. He asks whether Odysseus has heard of his son, Orestes, in Orchomenus, in Pylos, or in Sparta with Menelaus. Odysseus answers that he does not know whether he lives or has died, and that it is bad to speak to the wind.

The two stand still, weeping, when the souls of Achilles, Patroclus, Antilochus, and Ajax arrive. Achilles recognizes Odysseus and asks, anxiously, what greater feat he is planning, and how he had the audacity to descend to Hades, where the dead live without sense, mere images of exhausted mortals. Odysseus answers that he came because of Tiresias, to learn how to reach Ithaca, which he has not yet reached, neither the Achaean land nor his own. He tells Achilles that no one was more blessed: once honored like a god by the Argives, now he reigns among the dead, and so he should not lament. Achilles does not accept the consolation: he would prefer to be a plowman in the service of another, of a poor man, rather than reign over all the dead. He asks about his son, whether he went to war as the first fighter, and about Peleus, whether he still has honor among the Myrmidons or they despise him for his old age, and says that if he returned for an instant to the light with his former strength, he would make felt the arm of anyone who dishonors him. Odysseus answers that he knows nothing of Peleus, but of Neoptolemus he will tell the whole truth: it was he who brought him from Scyros to the ships; in council he spoke first and did not err, and only Nestor and Odysseus surpassed him; on the plain he never stayed in the crowd and ran ahead, and killed many, among them the hero Eurypylus; and when they entered the horse of Epeius, while the other chiefs wiped away tears and trembled, he never grew pale nor wiped his face, but asked to go out, and touched his sword and spear. When they sacked the city of Priam, he returned unharmed with his share. Achilles's soul strides away across the meadow of asphodel, glad because his son stood out.

The other souls remain, grieving, asking about their kin. Only the soul of Ajax, son of Telamon, stays apart, angry at Odysseus's victory in the contest for Achilles's armor, which Achilles's mother had set as a prize and which the sons of the Trojans and Pallas Athena judged. Odysseus laments having won such a prize, because the earth covered, for its sake, a man who was, after Achilles, the best in form and deeds. He speaks to him with gentle words: will he not, even in death, give up his anger over baleful arms? The gods made those arms an evil to the Argives, who lost in Ajax a tower, and everyone mourns him as they mourn Achilles; no one was to blame, but Zeus hated the army of the Danaans and gave them that fate. He asks Ajax to come closer, to listen, and to master his spirit. Ajax says nothing and goes with the other souls into Erebus. Odysseus thought of speaking to him even though he was angry, but his spirit wished to see the souls of the other dead.

He sees Minos, son of Zeus, with a golden scepter, judging the dead, who question him seated and standing; Orion, hunting the wild beasts in the meadow of asphodel; Tityus, stretched over nine plethra, with two vultures gnawing his liver, for having outraged Leto; Tantalus, in water up to his chin, thirsty, seeing the water flee each time he bends to drink, and the wind throw into the clouds the fruit he tries to pick; Sisyphus, pushing up a huge stone that rolls back each time it nears the summit. Then he sees the strength of Heracles, an image, because Heracles himself is among the gods, married to Hebe. Around him the dead cry like birds, and he, like the night, with the bow bare and the arrow on the string, looks terrible, always ready to shoot. He recognizes Odysseus and laments: he too drags an evil fate, like the one he had under the sun. He was a son of Zeus and suffered infinite woes, subjected to a man much worse, who imposed harsh labors on him; once he sent him there to fetch the dog, and Heracles brought him up from Hades, guided by Hermes and Athena. He goes back into Hades.

Odysseus waits, hoping to see Theseus and Pirithous, but thousands of the dead gather with a supernatural cry, and the green fear seizes him, for fear that Persephone will send the head of the Gorgon. He goes then to the ship, orders the companions to board and loose the mooring lines. They sit at the oars, and the current of the Ocean carries the ship, first by oar, then with a favorable wind.