The ship sails to the edge of the world, to the stream of Ocean and the land of the Cimmerians, which is covered in fog and never sees the sun. There Odysseus digs a trench, pours offerings of milk and honey, wine, and water, sprinkles barley, and cuts the throats of a ram and a black ewe so that their blood flows into the pit. The shades of the dead swarm up from Erebus with terrible cries. Odysseus draws his sword to keep them back from the blood until he has spoken with Teiresias.
The first to approach is Elpenor, who is still unburied. He begs Odysseus to return to Aeaea and give him a funeral, planting his oar on his grave mound. Then comes Odysseus's mother, Anticleia, who was alive when he left for Troy. He weeps but holds her back. Finally Teiresias arrives, drinks the blood, and prophesies. Poseidon is angry about his son's blinding and will make the journey hard. Still, they can all reach home if they control themselves when they come to Thrinacia, where the cattle of the Sun graze. If they harm the cattle, the ship and crew will be destroyed, and Odysseus will return late, alone, on another's ship, to find arrogant men courting his wife. After killing the suitors, he must carry an oar inland until he finds people who know nothing of the sea and someone mistakes the oar for a winnowing fan. There he must sacrifice to Poseidon. As for his own end, "death shall come to you from the sea, and your life shall ebb away very gently when you are full of years and peace of mind, and your people shall bless you." (The Greek can also mean a death far away from the sea.)
Odysseus then lets his mother drink the blood, and she recognizes him. She tells him that Penelope still waits faithfully, that Telemachus manages the estate, and that Laertes lives in grief on his farm. She herself died not of sickness, but of longing for her son. Three times Odysseus tries to embrace her, and three times she slips through his arms like a shadow or a dream. She explains that this is the way of the dead: the flesh and bones are burned, and the spirit flies away. Next Persephone sends a procession of famous women, and Odysseus questions each one: among them are Tyro, Antiope, Alcmene the mother of Heracles, Epicaste (Jocasta) the mother of Oedipus, Chloris, Leda, Phaedra, Procris, and Ariadne.
Here Odysseus breaks off his tale, saying it is late. Arete praises him and calls for more gifts, and Alcinous says he speaks like a skilled bard, not a liar, and asks if he saw any of his comrades from Troy. Odysseus continues. Agamemnon appears and tells how Aegisthus and Clytemnestra murdered him at a feast, and he warns Odysseus not to trust women too much, though he admits Penelope is wise and loyal. Then Achilles comes. When Odysseus says he must be honored even among the dead, Achilles replies that he would rather be a hired laborer for a poor farmer on earth than king of all the dead. He asks about his son, and when Odysseus tells him of Neoptolemus's courage at Troy, Achilles strides away across the meadow of asphodel, joyful.
Only Ajax refuses to speak. He is still angry that Odysseus won the armor of Achilles in a contest after Achilles' death, a loss that led Ajax to kill himself. Odysseus speaks kindly to him, but Ajax turns away silently into the darkness. Odysseus then sees Minos judging the dead, the hunter Orion, and the punished sinners: Tityos, whose liver is torn by vultures; Tantalus, who stands in water that drains away whenever he bends to drink, beneath fruit that the wind blows out of his reach; and Sisyphus, forever rolling a boulder up a hill only to see it roll down again. Odysseus would have stayed to see more heroes, but the endless crowd of the dead terrifies him, and he fears that Persephone may send up the head of the Gorgon. He hurries back to his ship.
Quoted lines are from Samuel Butler’s 1900 prose translation (Project Gutenberg #1727).
