The Underworld Errand

53“ ‘O Circe! make, I pray, the promise good
Which you have given, to send me to my home.
My heart is pining for it, and the hearts
Of all my friends, who weary out my life
Lamenting round me when you are not nigh.’

54“I spoke; the mighty goddess thus replied: —
‘Son of Laertes, nobly born and wise,
Odysseus! you must not remain with me
Unwillingly; but you have yet to make
Another voyage, and must visit first
The abode of Hades, and of Persephone
His dreaded queen, and there consult the soul
Of the blind seer Tiresias —him of Thebes —
Whose intellect was spared; for Persephone
Gave back to him in death the power of mind,
That only he might know of things to come.
The rest are shades that flit from place to place.’