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Odysseus consults the shade of Tiresias
Lucanian red figure calyx krater
4th century BC |
Tiresias prophesies to Odysseus:
"Glorious Odysseus, what you are after is sweet homecoming,
but the god will make it hard for you. I think you will not
ecape the Shaker of the Earth, who holds a grudge against you
in his heart, and, because you blinded his dear son, hates you.
But even so and still you might come back, after much suffering,
if you can contain your own desire, and contain your companions',
at that time when you first put in your well-made vessel
at the island Thrinakia, escaping the sea's blue water,
and there discover pasturing the cattle and fat sheep
of Helios, who sees all things, and listens to all things.
Then, if you keep your mind on homecoming, and leave these unharmed,
you might all make your way to Ithaka, after much suffering;
but if you do harm them, then I testify to the destruction
of your ship and your companions, but if you yourself get clear,
you will come home in bad case, with the loss of all your companions,
in someone else's ship, and find troubles in your household,
insolent men, who are eating away your livelihood
and courting your godlike wife and offering gifts to win her.
You may punish the violences of these men, when you come home.
But after you have killed these suitors in your own palace,
either by treachery, or openly with the sharp bronze,
then you must take up your well-shaped oar and go on a journey until you come where there are men living who know nothing
of the sea, and who eat food that is not mixed with salt, who never
have known well-shaped oars, which act for ships as wings do.
And I will tell you a very clear proof, and you cannot miss it.
When, as you walk, some other wayfarer happens to meet you,
and says you carry a winnow-fan on your bright shoulder,
then you must plant your well-shaped oar in the ground, and render
ceremonious sacrifice to the lord Poseidon,
one ram and one bull, and a mounter of sows, a boar pig,
and make your way home again and render holy hecatombs
to the immortal gods who hold the wide heaven, all
of them in order.
Death will come to you from the sea, in
some altogether unwarlike way, and it will end you
in the ebbing time of a sleek old age. Your people
about you will be prosperous. All this is true that I tell you." |
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The murder of Agamemnon and his followers
17th century etching
Theodor van Thulden (1606 - 1669) |
The soul of Agamemnon greets Odysseus and tells his story:
"Aigisthos, working out my death and destruction, invited
me to his house, and feasted me, and killed me there, with the help
of my sluttish wife, as one cuts down an ox at his manger.
So I died a most pitiful death, and my other companions
were killed around me without mercy, like pigs with shining
tusks, in the house of a man rich and very powerful,
for a wedding, or a festival, or a communal dinner.
You have been present in your time at the slaughters of many
men, killed singly, or in the strong encounters of battle;
but beyond all others you would have been sorry at heart
for this scene, how we lay sprawled by the mixing bowl and the loaded
tables, all over the palace, and the whole floor was steaming
with blood; and the most pitiful voice I heard of Priam's
daughter Kassandra, killed by the treacherous Klytemnestra
over me; but I lifted my hands and with them beat on
the ground as I died upon the sword, but the sluttish woman
turned away from me and was so hard that her hands would not
press shut my eys and mouth though I was going to Hades.
So there is nothing more deadly or more vile than a woman
who stores her mind with acts that are of such sort, as this one
did when she thought of this act of dishonour, and plotted
the murder of her lawful husband. See, I had been thinking
that I would be welcome to my children and thralls of my household
when I came home, but she with thoughts surpassingly grisly
splashed the shame on herself and the rest of her sex, on women
still to come, even on the one whose acts are virtuous." |
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Odysseus seeks out other famous dead men
17th century etching
Theodor van Thulden (1606 - 1669) |
Odysseus seeks out other famous souls:
There I saw Minos, the glorious son of Zeus, seated,
holding a golden sceptre and issuing judgements among
the dead, who all around the great lord argued their cases,
some sitting and some standing, by the wide-gated house of Hades.
After him I was aware of gigantic Orion
in the meadow of asphodel, rounding up and driving together
wild animals he himself had killed in the lonely mountains,
holding in his hand a brazen club, forever unbroken.
And I saw Tityos, Earth's glorious son, lying
in the plain, and sprawled over nine acres. Two vultures,
sitting one on either side, were tearing his liver,
plunging inside the caul. With his hands he could not beat them
away. He had manhandled Leto, the honoured consort
of Zeus, as she went through spacious Panopeus, toward Pytho.
And I saw Tantalos also, suffering hard pains, standing
in lake water that came up to his chin, and thirsty
as he was, he tried to drink, but could capture nothing;
for every time the old man, trying to drink, stooped over,
the water would drain away and disappear, and the black earth
showed at his feet, and the divinity dried it away. Over
his head trees with lofty branches had fruit like a shower descending,
pear tress and pomegranate trees and apple tres with fruit shining,
and figs that were sweet and olives ripened well, but each time
the old man would straighten up and reach with his hands for them,
the wind would toss them away toward the clouds overhanging.
Also I saw Sisyphos. He was suffering strong pains,
and with both arms embracing the monstrous stone, struggling
with hands and feet alike, he would try to push the stone upward
to the crest of the hill, but when it was on the point of going
over the top, the force of gravity turned it backward
and the pitiless stone rolled back down to the level. He then
tried once more to push it up, straining hard, and sweat ran
all down his body, and over his head a cloud of dust rose. |
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The funeral of Elpenor
17th century etching
Theodor van Thulden (1606 - 1669) |
Elpenor tells his story:
"Son of Laertes and seed of Zeus, resourceful Odysseus,
the evil will of the spirit and the wild wine bewildered me.
I lay down on the roof of Circe's palace, and never thought,
when I went down, to go by the way of the long ladder,
but blundered straight off the edge of the roof, so that my neck bone
was broken out of its sockets, and my soul went down to Hades.
But now I pray you, by those you have yet to see, who are not here,
by your wife, and by your father, who reared you when you were little,
and by Telemachos whom you left alone in your palace;
for I know that after you leave this place and the house of Hades
you will put back with your well-made ship to the island, Aiaia;
there at that time, my lord, I ask that you remember me,
and do not go and leave me behind unwept, unburied,
when you leave, for fear I might become the gods' curse upon you.
But burn me there with all my armour that belongs to me,
and heap up a grave mound beside the beach of the grey sea,
for an unhappy man, so that those to come will know of me.
Do this for me, and on top of the grave mound plant the oar
with which I rowed when I was alive and among my companions. |
