Departure for Erebus

61“My friends came round me, and I said to them: —
‘Haply your thought may be that you are bound
For the dear country of your birth; but know
That Circe sends us elsewhere, to consult
The Theban seer, Tiresias, in the abode
Of Hades and the dreaded Persephone.’

62“I spoke, and their hearts failed them as they heard;
They sat them down, and wept, and tore their hair,
But fruitless were their sorrow and their tears.

63“Thus as we sadly moved to our good ship
Upon the seashore, weeping all the while,
Circe, meantime, had visited its deck,
And there had bound a ram and a black ewe
By means we saw not; for what eye discerns
The presence of a deity, who moves
From place to place, and wills not to be seen?”