Book XXIV · Episode 1 of 5
Souls in the Underworld
Hermes leads ghosts to Hades
Scenes
- Hermes Leads Souls — Hermes guides ghosts to asphodel
- Golden wand opens and seals men’s eyes
- Ghosts wail like a flock of bats
- Flock shrieks when one bat falls
- Passes ocean’s stream and Leucadia’s rock
- Sun’s gates and dreamland mark the path
- Achilles Meets Agamemnon — Achilles greets shamefully slain Agamemnon
- Joined by Patroclus, Antilochus, and Ajax
- Still ringed by Aegisthus’ slain men
- Recalls Zeus favoring him at Troy
- Doom of death overtook Agamemnon too soon
- Troy death would have brought son glory
- Achilles’ Funeral Recalled — Agamemnon recalls Achilles’s funeral games
- Achaeans washed and anointed Achilles’ body
- Thetis and nymphs rise to mourn
- Nestor calms Greeks frightened at the sight
- Seventeen nights of lament before the pyre
- Bones mingled with Patroclus’ in golden vase
- Amphimedon’s Tale — Amphimedon tells slaughter, Penelope praised
- Agamemnon recognizes host among the dead
- Penelope wove and unraveled Laertes’ shroud
- Servant betrayed Penelope’s weaving trick
- Odysseus returned disguised as a beggar
- Not like her who murdered her husband