Book XI

1And when we had come down to the ship and the sea,

first of all we hauled the ship down to the bright salt water,

and set the mast and the sails in the black ship,

and took the sheep and put them aboard, and ourselves

5went aboard grieving, letting the big tears fall.

And for us, behind the dark-blue-prowed ship,

a following wind that filled the sail, a good companion,

was sent by Circe of the lovely braids, dread goddess with a mortal's voice.

So when we had seen to the tackle through the ship,

10we sat, and the wind and the steersman held her on course.

All day long her sail was stretched as she crossed the water;

and the sun went down, and all the ways grew dark.¹

She came to the limits of deep-flowing Ocean.

There is the land and city of the Cimmerian men,²

15shrouded in mist and cloud: never does the shining

sun look down on them with his rays,

not when he climbs toward the starry heaven,

not when he turns back from heaven to earth,

but deadly night is stretched over wretched mortals.

20Coming there we beached the ship, and took out the sheep,

and walked along the stream of Ocean

until we came to the place that Circe had appointed.

There Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims,³

and I drew the sharp sword from beside my thigh

25and dug a pit about a cubit's measure this way and that,

and around it I poured a drink-offering to all the dead —

first with milk and honey mingled, then with sweet wine,

the third time with water; and I sprinkled white barley over it.

And I entreated, over and over, the strengthless heads of the dead:

30vowing that, come to Ithaca, I would offer in my halls

a barren heifer, my best, and heap the pyre with good things;

and to Tiresias, apart, alone, I would sacrifice a ram

all black, the one that stands out from all our flocks.

And when with vows and prayers I had entreated them,

35the tribes of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats

over the pit, and the dark-clouded blood ran; and they gathered,

the souls of the dead who are gone, up out of Erebus:⁴

brides, and unwed youths, and old men worn by long suffering,

and tender girls with the fresh grief on their hearts,

40and many men gashed by the bronze-tipped spears,

men killed in war, in armor caked with their blood.

In crowds from every side they came flocking about the pit

with a sound that had no earthly likeness; and the pale terror took me.

Then I roused my companions, and commanded them

45to flay the sheep that lay there slaughtered by the pitiless bronze,

and burn them, and pray to the gods —

to mighty Hades and dread Persephone;

and I myself, drawing the sharp sword from beside my thigh,

sat there, and would not let the strengthless heads of the dead

50come near the blood before I had questioned Tiresias.

First came the soul of my companion Elpenor,⁵

for he was not yet buried under the wide-wayed earth:

we had left his body behind in Circe's hall,

unwept and unburied, since another task was driving us.

55I wept to see him, and my heart pitied him,

and lifting my voice I spoke winged words to him:

'Elpenor — how did you come here, under the misty dark?

You have outstripped me — on foot, and I in my black ship.'⁶

So I spoke, and he groaned aloud, and answered:

60'Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of the many devices,

the evil doom of a god blinded me — that, and wine past measure.⁷

Lying down to sleep in Circe's hall, I never thought

to come back down again by the long ladder;

I fell headlong from the roof, and my neck

65snapped from the spine; and my soul came down to Hades.

Now I beg you — by those left behind, those not here beside us:

by your wife; by your father, who reared you when you were small;

by Telemachus, whom you left an only child in your halls.

For I know that when you go from here, from the house of Hades,

70you will put in again with your well-made ship at the island of Aeaea:

there, my lord, I charge you: remember me.

Do not go on and leave me behind you unwept, unburied,⁸

turning away — lest I become a cause of gods' wrath against you —

but burn me with all the armor that is mine,

75and heap me a mound on the shore of the gray salt sea:

an unlucky man's marker, for men to come to learn of.

Accomplish this for me — and fix upon the mound the oar⁹

I rowed with when I lived, when I was among my companions.'

So he spoke, and I answered him and said:

80'All this, poor luckless man, I will accomplish and do.'

So the two of us sat trading grim words,

I on one side, holding my sword over the blood,

and across from me the phantom of my companion, talking on.

Then came the soul of my dead mother,¹⁰

85Anticleia, daughter of great-hearted Autolycus,

whom I had left alive when I went to holy Ilium.

I wept to see her, and my heart pitied her;

but even so, for all my thick grief, I would not let her

come near the blood before I had questioned Tiresias.

90Then came the soul of Theban Tiresias,

holding a golden scepter; and he knew me, and spoke:¹¹

'Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of the many devices —

what now, unlucky man? Why have you left the light of the sun

and come to see the dead, and this place without joy?

95Draw back from the pit; hold off your sharp sword,

so that I may drink of the blood, and tell you the unerring truth.'

So he spoke, and I stepped back, and drove the silver-studded sword

home in its sheath. And when he had drunk the dark blood,

then at last the blameless seer addressed me:

100'It is honey-sweet homecoming you seek, shining Odysseus,

and a god will make it grim for you. For I do not think

the shaker of earth will fail to see you — the grudge is set in his heart,

raging because you blinded his dear son.

Yet even so, though you suffer evils, you may still come home,

105if you are willing to hold hard your own heart and your companions',

from the hour when you first bring your well-made ship

in to the island Thrinacia, escaping the violet sea,

and find at pasture there the cattle and the strong flocks

of Helios, who sees all things and hears all things.¹²

110If you leave them unharmed, and keep your mind on homecoming,

then you may yet reach Ithaca, though you suffer evils.

But if you harm them, then I foretell destruction

for ship and companions; and even if you yourself escape,

late you will come, and in evil case, all companions lost,¹³

115on another man's ship; and you will find trouble in your house —

overweening men, who eat away your living,

courting your godlike wife and offering bride-gifts.

Yet, truly, you will come and repay their violence.

And when you have killed the suitors in your halls,

120whether by guile or in the open, with the sharp bronze,

then go on a journey, taking a well-shaped oar,¹⁴

until you come to men who know nothing of the sea,

men who eat no food that is mixed with salt,

who know nothing of red-cheeked ships,

125nothing of well-shaped oars, which are wings for ships.

And I will tell you a sign, unmistakable: it will not escape you.

When another traveler, meeting you on the road,

says you carry a winnowing-fan on your shining shoulder,¹⁵

then and there fix the well-shaped oar in the earth

130and offer fine victims to the lord Poseidon —

a ram, a bull, and a boar that has mounted sows —

and turn away home, and offer holy hecatombs

to the deathless gods who hold wide heaven,

to all of them, each in order. And death will come to you

135from the sea, so gentle a death, and take you¹⁶

worn down under sleek old age; and around you the peoples

will be prosperous. This I tell you is unerring truth.'

So he spoke, and I answered him and said:

'Tiresias — all that, no doubt, the gods themselves have spun.¹⁷

140But come, tell me this, and tell it to me truly.

I see here the soul of my dead mother:

she sits in silence near the blood, and cannot bring herself

to look her own son in the face, or speak to him.

Tell me, lord: how may she know me for the man I am?'

145So I spoke, and he answered me at once:

'An easy word I will tell you, and set it in your mind.

Whomever of the dead who are gone you allow

to come near the blood, that one will speak you truth;

whomever you begrudge it, that one will draw back and go.'

150So speaking, the soul of the lord Tiresias went back

into the house of Hades, when he had told out the decrees of fate.

But I stayed rooted where I was until my mother

came and drank the dark-clouded blood. And at once she knew me,

and wailing she spoke winged words to me:

155'My child — how did you come here, under the misty dark,

alive? Hard it is for the living to look on all this:

for between lie great rivers, and terrible waters —

Ocean first of all, which there is no crossing on foot,

never, unless a man has a well-made ship.

160Are you only now come wandering here from Troy —

after all this time — with ship and companions? Have you not yet

been to Ithaca — not seen your wife in your own halls?'

So she spoke, and I answered her and said:

'Mother, need brought me down to Hades:

165to consult the soul of Theban Tiresias.

For not yet have I come near Achaea — not yet

set foot on our own land; I have wandered without pause, in misery,

since the day I first followed noble Agamemnon

toward Ilium of the fine horses, to fight the Trojans.

170But come, tell me this, and tell it to me truly:

what doom of death, that lays men low, mastered you?¹⁸

A long illness? Or did Artemis the arrow-pourer

come with her gentle arrows, and kill you?

And tell me of my father, and the son I left behind:

175does my honor still rest safe with them, or does some other

man hold it now — do they say I will come home no more?

And tell me the mind and purpose of my wedded wife:

does she stay by the boy and keep all things safe?

Or has the best man of the Achaeans married her already?'

180So I spoke, and at once my honored mother answered:

'Oh yes — she stays, and more: with an enduring heart¹⁹

she is there in your halls; and always in misery

her nights waste away, and her days, in tears.

Your fine honor no man holds yet: at his ease

185Telemachus farms the estates unchallenged, and feasts

at the equal banquets it is fitting a lawgiving man should tend:

for all men issue him the summons. But your father stays out there

on the farm, and never comes down to the city. Bedding

he has none — no bedstead, no cloaks, no shining blankets:

190through the winter he sleeps where the slaves do, in the house,

in the ashes by the fire, and puts poor clothing on his skin;

but when summer comes, and the heavy autumn,

then anywhere along the rise of his vineyard plot

a bed of fallen leaves is thrown on the ground for him,

195and there he lies grieving, and the sorrow grows great in his heart,

aching for your homecoming; and hard old age comes on him.²⁰

And so it was with me: so I too died and met my doom.

Not in the halls did the keen-eyed arrow-pourer

come with her gentle arrows and kill me;

200no illness fell upon me, of the kind that most often

draws the life from the limbs in hateful wasting:

no — it was longing for you, your counsels, shining Odysseus,

your gentle-heartedness, that robbed me of honey-sweet life.'²¹

So she spoke; and I, my mind stirred, longed

205to take the soul of my dead mother in my arms.

Three times I started toward her, and my heart bade me hold her;²²

three times, out of my hands, like a shadow or a dream

she flew. And the grief grew sharper in my heart each time,

and lifting my voice I spoke winged words to her:

210'Mother — why will you not stay for me, when I long to hold you,

so that even here in Hades, throwing our arms around each other,

the two of us might take our fill of icy mourning?

Or is this a phantom queenly Persephone

has sent me, so that I may weep and groan the more?'

215So I spoke, and at once my honored mother answered:

'Ah me, my child, luckless beyond all mortal men —

in no way does Persephone, the daughter of Zeus, deceive you:

this is the settled way of mortals, when one dies.²³

The sinews no longer hold the flesh and bones together:

220all that, the strong fury of the blazing fire

breaks down, as soon as the life has left the white bones,

and the soul flits away like a dream, and hovers.

But press on toward the light, as fast as you can. And mark

all these things — to tell them to your wife hereafter.'²⁴

225So the two of us traded words. And then the women

came — for queenly Persephone sent them on —²⁵

all who had been the wives and daughters of the great.

They came flocking in crowds around the dark blood,

and I considered how I might question each in turn.

230And this, as I turned it over, seemed to me the best plan:

drawing the long-edged sword from beside my thick thigh,

I would not let them drink the dark blood all together.

So they came up one by one, in file, and each declared

her lineage; and I questioned them all.

235There the first I saw was Tyro, born of a noble father,²⁶

who said she was the child of blameless Salmoneus,

and called herself the wife of Cretheus, Aeolus' son.

She fell in love with a river — divine Enipeus,

far the most beautiful of rivers flowing on the earth —

240and she would haunt Enipeus' beautiful streams.

And the earth-holder, the shaker of earth, took the river's likeness

and lay beside her at the mouths of the eddying water;

and a dark-gleaming wave stood up around them, mountain-high,

arched over, and hid the god and the mortal woman.

245He loosed the girdle of her maidenhood, and poured sleep over her.

And when the god had finished the works of love,

he clamped a hand on hers, and spoke a word, and named her:

'Rejoice in this love, woman. As the year turns round

you will bear glorious children — for the beds of the immortals

250are not fruitless. Tend them, and rear them.

Now go home, and hold your peace, and name no name.

But know it: I am Poseidon, shaker of the earth.'

So speaking he plunged under the surging sea.

And she conceived, and bore Pelias and Neleus,

255who both grew to be strong servants of great Zeus;

Pelias lived in wide-dancing-grounded Iolcus,

rich in flocks, and Neleus in sandy Pylos.

And her other sons this queen among women bore to Cretheus:

Aeson, and Pheres, and Amythaon the chariot-fighter.

260After her I saw Antiope, Asopus' daughter,

who could boast she had slept in the very arms of Zeus,

and she bore two sons, Amphion and Zethus,

who first founded the seat of seven-gated Thebes²⁷

and walled it round — for without walls they could not

265live in wide-dancing-grounded Thebes, strong though they were.

After her I saw Alcmene, Amphitryon's wife,

who bore Heracles, the lion-hearted, bold in the fight,

after she lay mingled in the arms of great Zeus;

and Megara, daughter of high-spirited Creon,

270whom Amphitryon's son held as wife — the man whose strength never wore.

And I saw the mother of Oedipus, beautiful Epicaste,²⁸

who did a monstrous thing in the ignorance of her mind,

marrying her own son; and he, who had killed his father,

married her; and the gods made it known among men at once.

275Yet he ruled on over the Cadmeians in lovely Thebes,

suffering pains, through the gods' deadly designs;

and she went down to the house of Hades, strong warden of the gate,

fastening a noose to hang sheer from the high roof-beam,

gripped by her anguish — and left behind for him the pains

280past counting that a mother's Furies bring to pass.

And I saw Chloris, beautiful past telling, whom Neleus once

married for her beauty, bringing bride-gifts past number:

youngest daughter of Amphion, Iasus' son,

who once ruled in strength in Minyan Orchomenus.

285She was queen of Pylos, and bore him shining children:

Nestor, and Chromius, and lordly Periclymenus,

and after them she bore that wonder of mortals, strong Pero,²⁹

whom all the neighboring men were courting; but Neleus

would give her to no man who could not drive off

290the crook-horned, broad-browed cattle of mighty Iphicles

out of Phylace — a dangerous herd. Only the blameless seer

undertook to drive them; and the hard doom of a god bound him fast,

the cruel bonds, and the herdsmen of the wild.

But when at last the months and the days were coming to fulfillment,

295as the year rolled round and the seasons came again,

then at last mighty Iphicles set him free,

when he had told out all the decrees of fate. And the design of Zeus was accomplished.

And I saw Leda, wife of Tyndareus,

who bore to Tyndareus two strong-hearted sons:

300Castor the horse-breaker, and Polydeuces good with his fists.

These two the life-giving earth holds — both of them living:³⁰

even under the earth they have honor from Zeus,

and live turn about, one day each in turn,

and each in turn are dead. They have won honor equal to the gods'.

305After her I saw Iphimedeia, wife of Aloeus,

who could say that she had lain with Poseidon,

and she bore two sons — but short-lived they proved —

godlike Otus, and far-famed Ephialtes:³¹

the tallest men the grain-giving earth ever nourished,

310and far the most beautiful, after famous Orion.

At nine years old they measured nine cubits

across, and stood nine fathoms high;

and they threatened the very immortals — to carry

the din of furious war up into Olympus.

315Ossa they strained to pile on Olympus, and on Ossa

Pelion of the shivering leaves, to make heaven scalable.

And they would have accomplished it, had they reached the measure of manhood;

but the son of Zeus, whom fair-haired Leto bore, destroyed them

both, before the down had bloomed beneath their temples

320and thickened on their chins in the flower of a young beard.

And Phaedra I saw, and Procris, and beautiful Ariadne,³²

the daughter of Minos the deadly-minded, whom Theseus once

carried off from Crete, making for the hill of holy

Athens — and had no joy of her: Artemis killed her first,

325on sea-ringed Dia, on the testimony of Dionysus.

And Maera I saw, and Clymene, and hateful Eriphyle,³³

who took precious gold as the price of her own husband.

But all of them I could not tell through or name —

all the wives and daughters of heroes I saw there:

330the divine night would waste away first. No — it is the hour

for sleep, whether I go down to the fast ship and the crew

or stay here. My sending rests with the gods, and with you."

So he spoke; and they were all hushed in silence,³⁴

held fast under the spell, through the shadowy halls.

335And white-armed Arete began to speak among them:

"Phaeacians — how does this man appear to you now:

his looks, his stature, the balanced mind within?

And he is my guest — though each of you shares the honor.

Do not hurry, then, to send him off, and do not cut short

340your gifts to one so needy: for many are the treasures

lying in your halls by the gods' good will."

And among them spoke the old hero Echeneus,

the man elder-born beyond the other Phaeacians:

"Friends — not wide of the mark, not short of our own thought,

345are the words of our watchful-minded queen. Heed them.

But on Alcinous here depend both word and deed."

Then Alcinous answered him in turn, and said:

"This word shall stand — so surely as I

live and rule the oar-loving Phaeacians.

350Let the guest endure it, then, for all his hunger for homecoming:

let him stay till tomorrow, until I make our whole

gift complete. His sending shall be the men's concern —

all men's, and mine above all: for mine is the power in this land.³⁵

Then Odysseus of the many designs answered him:

355"Lord Alcinous, most renowned among all peoples,

if you bade me stay here even for a year

and readied my sending, and gave me shining gifts,

even that I would choose; and it would profit me far more³⁶

to come to my own dear country with a fuller hand:

360so should I be more honored, and more dear, to all

the men who saw me sailing home to Ithaca."

Then Alcinous answered him in turn, and said:

"Odysseus — looking at you, we cannot liken you

to a cheat or a thief — the kind the black earth breeds³⁷

365in such crops, scattered everywhere:

men who build lies out of what no eye could ever test.

There is a shape upon your words, and a noble mind within them,

and you have told your tale with knowledge, like a singer —³⁸

the grim sorrows of all the Argives, and your own.

370But come, tell me this, and tell it to me truly:

did you see any of your godlike companions, who went

to Ilium with you, and met their doom there?

This night is long — marvelously long. It is not yet time

to sleep in the hall. Tell me the deeds of wonder.

375I could hold out until the shining dawn, if only you

could bear, here in the hall, to tell me your sorrows."

Then Odysseus of the many designs answered him:

"Lord Alcinous, most renowned among all peoples —

there is an hour for many tales, and an hour for sleep.

380But if you long to listen still, I would not

grudge you the telling of things more pitiful still:

the sorrows of my companions, who perished afterward —

who slipped out of the Trojans' battle-cry and its groaning

only to die on the homeward way, by an evil woman's will.³⁹

385Now when holy Persephone had scattered

the women's souls this way and that,

there came the soul of Agamemnon, Atreus' son,

grieving; and around him others were gathered — all who

died with him in the house of Aegisthus, and met their doom.

390He knew me at once, when he had drunk the dark blood,

and he wept, shrill and loud, letting the big tears fall,

stretching his hands toward me, straining to reach me —

but there was no strength grounded in him now, no force⁴⁰

such as once filled his supple limbs.

395I wept to see him, and my heart pitied him,

and lifting my voice I spoke winged words to him:

'Most glorious son of Atreus, Agamemnon, lord of men —

what doom of death, that lays men low, mastered you?

Did Poseidon master you in your ships,

400rousing the wretched blast of hard winds?

Or did hostile men cut you down on dry land

as you carved away their cattle and their fine flocks of sheep,

or fought them for their city and their women?'

So I spoke, and he answered me at once:

405'Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of the many devices:

Poseidon did not master me in my ships,

rousing the wretched blast of hard winds,

and hostile men did not cut me down on dry land.

Aegisthus built my death and my doom,

410and killed me — with my cursed wife — after calling me to his house

and feasting me: as a man cuts down an ox at the manger.⁴¹

So I died the most pitiable of deaths; and around me my other

companions were killed without pause, like white-tusked

swine slaughtered in the house of a rich and powerful man

415for a wedding, a club-feast, or a swelling banquet.⁴²

You have stood in the killing of many men before now,

cut down singly, or in the crush of battle —

but you would have grieved at heart above all to see that sight:

how around the wine-bowl and the loaded tables

420we lay in the hall, and the whole floor steamed with blood.

And the most pitiful voice I heard was Priam's daughter's —

Cassandra's, whom Clytemnestra of the crooked counsels killed⁴³

over my body; and I, dying, tried to raise my hands

and beat them down on the sword-blade — and she, the bitch-faced,

425turned her back: she could not bring herself, though I was going down to Hades,

to draw my eyelids shut with her hands, or close my mouth.⁴⁴

So true it is that nothing is more dread, more dog-shameless, than a woman

who can set her mind on deeds like these —

the way that woman plotted her unspeakable work,

430building the murder of her own wedded husband. And I had thought

to come home welcome to my children and my slaves!

But she — that mistress of atrocity — has poured out shame

on her own head, and on all women after her,

the female kind — yes, even on the doer of good.'

435So he spoke, and I answered him and said:

'Ah, gods — how terribly has Zeus of the wide voice hated

the seed of Atreus from the beginning, and through the designs

of women: for Helen's sake we died in our thousands,

and for you Clytemnestra set her snare while you were far away.'

440So I spoke, and he answered me at once:

'Then never be gentle, you too, even to your own wife.⁴⁵

Do not tell out to her the whole word that you know:

say part, and let part stay hidden.

But not for you, Odysseus, will murder come from a wife.

445Too understanding she is, too watchful the mind in her breast —

the daughter of Icarius, watchful-minded Penelope.

A young bride we left her, when we went

to the war; and a boy was at her breast,

an infant, who now, I suppose, sits numbered among men —

450the fortunate one! His dear father will see him, coming home,

and he will embrace his father: that is the right way of things.

But my wife did not let me fill even my eyes

with my own son. She killed me before that — killed the man himself.

And I will tell you another thing: lay it up in your heart.

455In secret — not in the open — bring your ship in⁴⁶

to your own dear country. For there is no trusting women any more.

But come, tell me this, and tell it to me truly:

do you hear whether my son is still alive, somewhere —

in Orchomenus perhaps, or in sandy Pylos,

460or with Menelaus in wide Sparta?

For noble Orestes has not yet died on the earth.'

So he spoke, and I answered him and said:

'Son of Atreus, why ask me this? I know nothing —

whether he lives or is dead. It is evil to speak words empty as wind.'⁴⁷

465So the two of us stood trading grim words,

grieving, letting the big tears fall.

And there came the soul of Achilles, Peleus' son,

and of Patroclus, and of blameless Antilochus,⁴⁸

and of Ajax, who was first in beauty and in body

470of all the Danaans, after the blameless son of Peleus.

And the soul of swift-footed Aeacides knew me,

and mourning he spoke winged words to me:

'Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of the many devices —

reckless man! What deed will your mind plot now, still greater?⁴⁹

475How did you dare come down to Hades, where the dead

live without wits — the phantoms of worn-out mortals?'

So he spoke, and I answered him and said:

'Achilles, son of Peleus, far the mightiest of the Achaeans —

I came for Tiresias, out of need: in hope he might tell

480some plan for reaching rugged Ithaca.

For not yet have I come near Achaea — not yet

set foot on my own land: evil is with me always. But you, Achilles —

no man before you was more blessed, and none will be after:

living, we Argives honored you like the gods,

485and now you rule in strength among the dead,

here where you are. Do not grieve at dying, then, Achilles.'

So I spoke, and he answered me at once:

'Do not talk death over sweetly to me, shining Odysseus.⁵⁰

I would rather be bound to the plow-land, hired out to another —

490some man without a land-lot, without much living —

than be king over all the wasted dead.

Enough — tell me word of that proud son of mine:

did he follow to the war, to be a champion, or did he not?

And tell me of blameless Peleus, if you have heard:

495does he still hold his honor among the Myrmidon crowds,

or do they slight him now through Hellas and Phthia,

because old age has hold of him, hand and foot?

For I am no longer his defender under the rays of the sun —

no longer the man I was when in wide Troy

500I cut down the best of their host, in the Argives' defense.

Could I come, that man, even for an hour, to my father's house,⁵¹

I would make my fury and my unconquerable hands a horror

to those who do him violence and shut him from his honor.'

So he spoke, and I answered him and said:

505'Of blameless Peleus I have heard nothing.

But of your own dear son, Neoptolemus,

I will tell you the whole truth, as you ask.

I myself carried him, in my trim hollow ship,

out of Scyros to join the strong-greaved Achaeans.

510And whenever we framed our counsels around the city of Troy,

he was always first to speak, and his words never missed:

godlike Nestor and I alone outdid him.

And whenever we fought on the Trojan plain with the bronze,

he never lingered back in the mass of men or the crush,

515but ran far out in front, yielding his fury to no one,

and he cut down many men in the terrible fighting.

All of them I could not tell through or name —

all the host he killed in the Argives' defense;

but such a man was the son of Telephus he brought down with the bronze,

520the hero Eurypylus — and around him his Ceteian

companions in crowds were slain, for the sake of a woman's gifts.⁵²

He was the handsomest man I ever saw, after noble Memnon.

And when we climbed down into the horse Epeius built —

we, the best of the Argives — and it all lay upon me,

525to throw open our close-packed ambush or to shut it,

then the other leaders and counselors of the Danaans

kept wiping tears away, and each man's legs shook under him;

but him — never once did my eyes see

his beautiful skin go pale, or catch him wiping

530a tear from his cheeks. No: he begged me, over and over,

to let him out of the horse, and kept fingering his sword-hilt

and his spear heavy with bronze, with evil in his heart for the Trojans.⁵³

And when we had sacked the steep city of Priam,

he boarded his ship with his share and a fine prize of honor —

535unscarred: never touched by a thrown spear, never gashed

in the close work, the way it happens so often

in war. For Ares rages blind, and makes no distinctions.'

So I spoke; and the soul of swift-footed Aeacides

went away with long strides across the meadow of asphodel,⁵⁴

540rejoicing that I had said his son was preeminent.

And the other souls of the dead who are gone

stood grieving, and each asked after what was dear to it.

Alone of them all, the soul of Ajax, Telamon's son,

stood apart, still raging over the victory⁵⁵

545I won against him, pleading my case by the ships,

for the arms of Achilles. His honored mother set the prize,

and the sons of the Trojans judged it, and Pallas Athena.

Would to god I had never won a contest like that one:

such a head the earth closed over for those arms' sake —

550Ajax, who in beauty and in every deed of war stood first

of all the Danaans, after the blameless son of Peleus.

Him I addressed with honeyed words:

'Ajax, son of blameless Telamon — could you not, then,

even in death forget your anger at me for those cursed

555arms? The gods made them a scourge for the Argives —

such a tower fell when you fell. For you the Achaeans

grieve without ceasing, as for the very head

of Achilles, Peleus' son. And no one else

bears the blame, but Zeus: he hated the army of the Danaan

560spearmen with a terrible hatred, and laid your doom on you.

Come here, lord — come hear our word, our speech.

Master your fury; break that proud heart down.'

So I spoke. He answered me nothing. He went his way⁵⁶

after the other souls, into the Erebus of the dead who are gone.

565There, even so, for all his anger, he might yet have spoken to me,

or I to him. But the heart in my breast

wished to see the souls of the other dead.

There I saw Minos, the shining son of Zeus,⁵⁷

holding a golden scepter, delivering law among the dead —

570he seated, and around him the dead pleading their cases before the lord,

sitting and standing through the wide-gated house of Hades.

And after him I marked out huge Orion

herding the wild beasts together across the meadow of asphodel —

the very beasts he had killed on the lonely mountains —

575a club in his hands, all bronze, forever unbroken.

And I saw Tityus, the son of glorious Earth,

laid out on the ground: over nine roods he sprawled,

and two vultures, sitting either side, tore at his liver,⁵⁸

plunging into the caul; and his hands could not beat them off:

580for he had assaulted Leto, the honored consort of Zeus,

as she walked toward Pytho through Panopeus of the lovely dancing-grounds.

And Tantalus too I saw, holding his hard agonies,

standing in a pool that lapped against his chin —

and he strained with thirst, and could not reach a drop to drink:⁵⁹

585as often as the old man stooped, in a fury to drink,

so often the water was swallowed away and gone, and around his feet

the black earth showed, parched dry by a god.

And trees in tall leaf poured their fruit above his head,

pears and pomegranates and apple trees bright with fruit,

590sweet figs and olives in full flourish;⁶⁰

and whenever the old man reached out to close his hands on them,

the wind would toss them away toward the shadowing clouds.

And Sisyphus too I saw, holding his hard agonies,

wrestling a monstrous stone with both his arms.

595Bracing himself — straining with hands and feet —

he would shove the stone uphill toward the crest; but each time,

just as he was about to heave it over the top, the sheer weight wheeled it round,

and down to the plain again rolled the shameless stone.⁶¹

And he would strain again, and shove — the sweat streaming

600off his limbs, and the dust rising off his head.

And after him I marked the strength of Heracles —

his phantom: for the man himself, among the deathless gods,⁶²

delights in the feasting, with fair-ankled Hebe for his wife,

the child of great Zeus and of Hera of the golden sandals.

605Around that phantom rose a clamor of the dead, like birds

scattering in panic every way. And he, like black night,

the bow bare in his hand, an arrow on the string,

glared terribly about him, forever like a man on the point of shooting.

And terrible was the baldric crossing his chest,

610the sword-belt all of gold, where deeds of wonder had been worked —

bears, and wild boars, and lions with fire in their eyes,

and combats, and battles, and murders, and the killings of men.⁶³

May the man who designed that belt design nothing further —

whoever took such work into his craft!

615And he in his turn knew me, the moment his eyes fell on me,

and mourning he spoke winged words to me:

'Zeus-born son of Laertes, Odysseus of the many devices —

poor man! So you too are dragging out an evil doom⁶⁴

such as I bore beneath the rays of the sun?

620I was a son of Zeus, of Cronos' line — and my misery

had no end: for I was bound in service to a man

far worse than I, who laid hard labors on me,

and once he sent me here, to fetch the Hound: no other

labor, he reckoned, could be mightier than that one.

625I carried the Hound up and out of Hades,

and Hermes saw me on my way, and gray-eyed Athena.'

So speaking he went back into the house of Hades;

but I stayed rooted there, in hope some other might yet come

of the hero men who died in the time before.

630And now I would have seen still earlier men, the ones I longed for —

Theseus and Pirithous, glorious children of the gods —⁶⁵

but first the tribes of the dead came gathering, thousand

on thousand, with a sound that had no earthly likeness; and the pale terror took me

that queenly Persephone might send out of Hades

635the Gorgon head of the dread monster against me.⁶⁶

Straight to the ship I went, and ordered my companions

to board in their turn and loose the stern-cables;

and they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks.

And the wave of the current bore her down the river of Ocean —

640the rowing first; and afterward, a beautiful following wind.