Book X · Episode 6 of 6
Bound for the Underworld
Circè sends Odysseus to consult dead
Scenes
- The Underworld Errand — Odysseus must first consult seer Tiresias
- He begs Circè to keep her promise
- Weary friends ache for Ithaca too
- One more voyage awaits, to Hades’ house
- Tiresias alone keeps his full mind
- Persephone granted this gift in death
- Circè’s Instructions — Circè details trench, libations, rites
- Weeping, he asks who will pilot him
- The north wind will carry him across
- He’ll cross Oceanus to Persephone’s groves
- He sacrifices a ram and black ewe
- His sword holds the ghosts at bay
- Elpenor’s Fall — Drunk Elpenor falls and dies
- Circè dresses in white and gold
- Odysseus rouses friends at dawn
- Elpenor is youngest, neither brave nor wise
- He’d slept on the roof for coolness
- He forgets the long staircase down
- Departure for Erebus — Weeping crew boards beast-stocked ship
- Odysseus says home must wait
- They must first consult Tiresias
- Men weep and tear their hair
- Grief changes nothing for them
- Circè moves unseen, unnoticed by mortals