Following Circe’s advice, Odysseus (Ulysses) prepared himself to descend into Hades in order to question the “psyche” of the blind soothsayer Tiresias, for Persephone wanted that only he would retain his ability to think, even in death.
Before departure, Elpenor died after falling from the roof because of his drunkenness. He was the least brave in combat and the least wise in counsel.
Then Odysseus (Ulysses) informed his companions of their next journey and all of them sobbed while tearing their hair out.
The hero let the wind Boreas bring him to the edge of the Ocean and bypass the Little Promontory. He ran aground on the shore, where the currents were deepest, near the sacred woods of Persephone. It was the land of the Cimmerians, a people who lived in the mist the sun never pierced and on which weighed a night of death.
He then went on through the marshes to the places where the Acheron receives the Pyriphlegethon and the Kokytos whose waters come from the Styx (which is only an arm of the Styx). The two noisy rivers converge in front of the “Stone”.
He then made the sacrifices indicated by the soothsayer. As the shadows rose in droves, he prevented them from approaching in order to choose the ones he wanted to see.
The first that came to him was that of Elpenor, whose body was left abandoned without burial at Circe’s home. She begged Odysseus (Ulysses) to arrange a funeral according to custom and to erect a monument to her memory when he returns to the goddess.
Then came Anticlia, the daughter of Autolycos and mother of Odysseus (Ulysses), whose death he did not know.
Then Tiresias appeared, holding the golden sceptre. He told the hero about Poseidon’s grudge because he had blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. He informed him that he could reach the goal if he could control his “desire (θυμος)” and that of his companions. He announced their passage by Trident Island, where the herds of Helios, cows and fat sheep, grazed. The crew had to respect them, otherwise all the men would die and he would return on a borrowed ship to find misfortune at home. After punishing the excesses of the suitors, he would have to leave again with the oar on his shoulder and walk so far that in the end he would meet people who ignore the sea, eat without salt and do not know about ships and oars. Then he would come across a traveller who would ask him why he was carrying a grain shovel on his shoulder. He would then have to plant the oar in the ground, sacrifice to Poseidon and then return to his dwelling to sacrifice to all the Immortals. There he would live a happy old age surrounded by wealthy people.
At Odysseus (Ulysses)’ request, Tiresias informed him that in order to communicate with the shadows and obtain the truth from them, the hero had to let them approach and drink the blood of the sacrificed animals.
With Tiresias retiring, his mother Anticlia came to drink from the steaming blood. She spoke to Odysseus (Ulysses) of his wife, son and father filled with sadness on the island of Ithaca. She also told him that maternal anxiety had caused her own death.
Odysseus (Ulysses) wanted to take her in her arms but seized only a shadow, an evanescent dream.
The hero saw then the shadows of Tyro, Antiope, Alcmene, Megara, Epicasta, Chloris, Leda, Iphimedeia Phaidra, Procris, Ariadne, Maia, Clymene, Eriphyle and many other heroines.
Then came the shadow of Agamemnon who recounted the murder perpetrated by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra. He advised Odysseus (Ulysses) “not to show himself” on his return. He also asked for news of his son Orestes, but Odysseus (Ulysses) knew nothing about him.
Then came the shadows of Achilles, Patroclus, Antilochus and Ajax.
In the eyes of Odysseus (Ulysses), Achilles should have been happy to exert his power over the dead, but the latter disabused him, claiming that he would rather be the servant of a poor farmer than rule over the dead who are nothing. Again, Odysseus (Ulysses) could not give any recent news, neither of his father Peleus, nor of his son Neoptolemus. However he praised the latter, who fought fearlessly during the last battles of Troy, no one equalling his strength and only Memnon surpassing him in handsomeness.
Then Odysseus (Ulysses) tried in vain to reconcile himself with the shadow of Ajax who still didn’t forgive him for having won the weapons of Achilles in court.
He then saw Minos who was ruling over the shadows and the great Orion who continued hunting in the Asphodel meadows the fawns he had already killed during his lifetime in the lonely mountains. He also saw Tityos, whose liver was devoured by two vultures, Tantalus in torment and Sisyphus rolling his stone.
Then he saw Heracles, but it was only his shadow, for he was in fact staying with the immortals, united to Hebe. Around his shadow, the dead fled, “like birds.” With a frightening look, he sought the goal, an arrow resting on his bent bow. No craftsman would have been able to reproduce his incomparable harness. He told Odysseus (Ulysses) that Hermes and Athena had given him their support w