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black ram without spot, the fairest of my flock. But when I
had besought the tribes of the dead with vows and prayers,
I took the sheep and cut their throats over the trench, and
the dark blood flowed forth, and lo, the spirits of the
dead that be departed gathered them from out of Erebus.
Brides and youths unwed, and old men of many and evil days,
and tender maidens with grief yet fresh at heart; and many
there were, wounded with bronze-shod spears, men slain in
fight with their bloody mail about them. And these many
ghosts flocked together from every side about the trench
with a wondrous cry, and pale fear gat hold on me. Then did
I speak to my company and command them to flay the sheep
that lay slain by the pitiless sword, and to consume them
with fire, and to make prayer to the gods, to mighty Hades
and to dread Persephone, and myself I drew the sharp sword
from my thigh and sat there, suffering not the strengthless
heads of the dead to draw nigh to the blood, ere I had word
of Teiresias.

'And first came the soul of Elpenor, my companion, that had
not yet been buried beneath the wide-wayed earth; for we
left the corpse behind us in the hall of Circe, unwept and
unburied, seeing that another task was instant on us. At
the sight of him I wept and had compassion on him, and
uttering my voice spake to him winged words: "Elpenor, how
hast thou come beneath the darkness and the shadow? Thou
hast come fleeter on foot than I in my black ship."

'So spake I, and with a moan he answered me, saying: "Son
of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices,
an evil doom of some god was my bane and wine out of
measure. When I laid me down on the house-top of Circe I
minded me not to descend again by the way of the tall
ladder, but fell right down from the roof, and my neck was
broken off from the bones of the spine, and my spirit went
down to the house of Hades. And now I pray thee in the name
of those whom we left, who are no more with us, thy wife,
and thy sire who cherished thee when as yet thou wert a
little one, and Telemachus, whom thou didst leave in thy
halls alone; forasmuch as I know that on thy way hence from
out the dwelling of Hades, thou wilt stay thy well-wrought
ship at the isle Aeaean, even then, my lord, I charge thee
to think on me. Leave me not unwept and unburied as thou
goest hence, nor turn thy back upon me, lest haply I bring
on thee the anger of the gods. Nay, burn me there with mine
armour, all that is mine, and pile me a barrow on the shore
of the grey sea, the grave of a luckless man, that even men
unborn may hear my story. Fulfil me this and plant upon the
barrow mine oar, wherewith I rowed in the days of my life,
while yet I was among my fellows."

'Even so he spake, and I answered him saying: "All this,
luckless man, will I perform for thee and do."

'Even so we twain were sitting holding sad discourse, I on
the one side, stretching forth my sword over the blood,
while on the other side the ghost of my friend told all his
tale.

'Anon came up the soul of my mother dead, Anticleia, the
daughter of Autolycus the great-hearted, whom I left alive
when I departed for sacred Ilios. At the sight of her I
wept, and was moved with compassion, yet even so, for all
my sore grief, I suffered her not to draw nigh to the
blood, ere I had word of Teiresias.

'Anon came the soul of Theban Teiresias, with a golden
sceptre in his hand, and he knew me and spake unto me: "Son
of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices,
what seekest thou NOW, wretched man, wherefore hast thou
left the sunlight and come hither to behold the dead and a
land desolate of joy? Nay, hold off from the ditch and draw
back thy sharp sword, that I may drink of the blood and
tell thee sooth."

'So spake he and I put up my silver-studded sword into the
sheath, and when he had drunk the dark blood, even then did
the noble seer speak unto me, saying: "Thou art asking of
thy sweet returning, great Odysseus, but that will the god
make hard for thee; for methinks thou shalt not pass
unheeded by the Shaker of the Earth, who hath laid up wrath
in his heart against thee, for rage at the blinding of his
dear son. Yet even so, through many troubles, ye may come
home, if thou wilt restrain thy spirit and the spirit of
thy men so soon as thou shalt bring thy well-wrought ship
nigh to the isle Thrinacia, fleeing the sea of violet blue,
when ye find the herds of Helios grazing and his brave
flocks, of Helios who overseeth all and overheareth all
things. If thou doest these no hurt, being heedful of thy
return, so may ye yet reach Ithaca, albeit in evil case.
But if thou hurtest them, I foreshow ruin for thy ship and
for thy men, and even though thou shalt thyself escape,
late shalt thou return in evil plight, with the loss of all
thy company, on board the ship of strangers, and thou shalt
find sorrows in thy house, even proud men that devour thy
living, while they woo thy godlike wife and offer the gifts
of wooing. Yet I tell thee, on thy coming thou shalt avenge
their violence. But when thou hast slain the wooers in thy
halls, whether by guile, or openly with the edge of the
sword, thereafter go thy way, taking with thee a shapen
oar, till thou shalt come to such men as know not the sea,
neither eat meat savoured with salt; yea, nor have they
knowledge of ships of purple cheek, nor shapen oars which
serve for wings to ships. And I will give thee a most
manifest token, which cannot escape thee. In the day when
another wayfarer shall meet thee and say that thou hast a
winnowing fan on thy stout shoulder, even then make fast
thy shapen oar in the earth and do goodly sacrifice to the
lord Poseidon, even with a ram and a bull and a boar, the
mate of swine, and depart for home and offer holy hecatombs
to the deathless gods that keep the wide heaven, to each in
order due. And from the sea shall thine own death come, the
gentlest death that may be, which shall end thee foredone
with smooth old age, and the folk shall dwell happily
around thee. This that I say is sooth."

'So spake he, and I answered him, saying: "Teiresias, all
these threads, methinks, the gods themselves have spun. But
come, declare me this and plainly tell me all. I see here
the spirit of my mother dead; lo, she sits in silence near
the blood, nor deigns to look her son in the face nor speak

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raised the dolorous blast of contrary winds, nor did
unfriendly men do me hurt upon the land, but Aegisthus it
was that wrought me death and doom and slew me, with the
aid of my accursed wife, as one slays an ox at the stall,
after he had bidden me to his house, and entertained me at
a feast. Even so I died by a death most pitiful, and round
me my company likewise were slain without ceasing, like
swine with glittering tusks which are slaughtered in the
house of a rich and mighty man, whether at a wedding
banquet or a joint-feast or a rich clan-drinking. Ere now
hast thou been at the slaying of many a man, killed in
single fight or in strong battle, yet thou wouldst have
sorrowed the most at this sight, how we lay in the hall
round the mixing-bowl and the laden boards, and the floor
all ran with blood. And most pitiful of all that I heard
was the voice of the daughter of Priam, of Cassandra, whom
hard by me the crafty Clytemnestra slew. Then I strove to
raise my hands as I was dying upon the sword, but to earth
they fell. And that shameless one turned her back upon me,
and had not the heart to draw down my eyelids with her
fingers nor to close my mouth. So surely is there nought
more terrible and shameless than a woman who imagines such
evil in her heart, even as she too planned a foul deed,
fashioning death for her wedded lord. Verily I had thought
to come home most welcome to my children and my thralls;
but she, out of the depth of her evil knowledge, hath shed
shame on herself and on all womankind, which shall be for
ever, even on the upright."

'Even so he spake, but I answered him, saying: "Lo now, in
very sooth, hath Zeus of the far-borne voice wreaked
wondrous hatred on the seed of Atreus through the counsels
of woman from of old. For Helen's sake so many of us
perished, and now Clytemnestra hath practised treason
against thee, while yet thou wast afar off."

'Even so I spake, and anon he answered me, saying:
"Wherefore do thou too, never henceforth be soft even to
thy wife, neither show her all the counsel that thou
knowest, but a part declare and let part be hid. Yet shalt
not thou, Odysseus, find death at the hand of thy wife, for
she is very discreet and prudent in all her ways, the wise
Penelope, daughter of Icarius. Verily we left her a bride
new wed when we went to the war, and a child was at her
breast, who now, methinks, sits in the ranks of men, happy
in his lot, for his dear father shall behold him on his
coming, and he shall embrace his sire as is meet. But us
for my wife, she suffered me not so much as to have my fill
of gazing on my son; ere that she slew me, even her lord.
And yet another thing will I tell thee, and do thou ponder
it in thy heart. Put thy ship to land in secret, and not
openly, on the shore of thy dear country; for there is no
more faith in woman. But come, declare me this and plainly
tell it all, if haply ye hear of my son as yet living,
either, it may be, in Orchomenus or in sandy Pylos, or
perchance with Menelaus in wide Sparta, for goodly Orestes
hath not yet perished on the earth."

'Even so he spake, but I answered him, saying: "Son of
Atreus, wherefore dost thou ask me straitly of these
things? Nay I know not at all, whether he be alive or dead;
it is ill to speak words light as wind."

'Thus we twain stood sorrowing, holding sad discourse,
while the big tears fell fast: and therewithal came the
soul of Achilles, son of Peleus, and of Patroclus and of
noble Antilochus and of Aias, who in face and form was
goodliest of all the Danaans, after the noble son of
Peleus. And the spirit of the son of Aeacus, fleet of foot,
knew me again, and making lament spake to me winged words:

'"Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many
devices, man overbold, what new deed and hardier than this
wilt thou devise in thy heart? How durst thou come down to
the house of Hades, where dwell the senseless dead, the
phantoms of men outworn?"

'So he spake, but I answered him: "Achilles, son of Peleus,
mightiest far of the Achaeans, I am come hither to seek to
Teiresias, if he may tell me any counsel, how I may come to
rugged Ithaca. For not yet have I come nigh the Achaean
land, nor set foot on mine own soil, but am still in evil
case; while as for thee, Achilles, none other than thou
wast heretofore the most blessed of men, nor shall any be
hereafter. For of old, in the days of thy life, we Argives
gave thee one honour with the gods, and now thou art a
great prince here among the dead. Wherefore let not thy
death be any grief to thee, Achilles."

'Even so I spake, and he straightway answered me, and said:
"Nay, speak not comfortably to me of death, oh great
Odysseus. Rather would I live on ground {*} as the hireling
of another, with a landless man who had no great
livelihood, than bear sway among all the dead that be
departed. But come, tell me tidings of that lordly son of
mine--did he follow to the war to be a leader or not? And
tell me of noble Peleus, if thou hast heard aught,--is he
yet held in worship among the Myrmidons, or do they
dishonour him from Hellas to Phthia, for that old age binds
him hand and foot? For I am no longer his champion under
the sun, so mighty a man as once I was, when in wide Troy I
slew the best of the host, and succoured the Argives. Ah!
could I but come for an hour to my father's house as then I
was, so would I make my might and hands invincible, to be
hateful to many an one of those who do him despite and keep
him from his honour."

{* [Greek] seems to mean 'upon the earth,' 'above ground,'
as opposed to the dead who are below, rather than 'bound to
the soil,' in which sense most commentators take it.}

'Even so he spake, but I answered him saying: "As for noble
Peleus, verily I have heard nought of him; but concerning
thy dear son Neoptolemus, I will tell thee all the truth,
according to thy word. It was I that led him up out of
Scyros in my good hollow ship, in the wake of the
goodly-greaved Achaeans. Now oft as we took counsel around
Troy town, he was ever the first to speak, and no word
missed the mark; the godlike Nestor and I alone surpassed
him. But whensoever we Achaeans did battle on the plain of
Troy, he never tarried behind in the throng or the press of