Place in Homer’s Odyssey

Hades Pluto's Realm

Where the dead are questioned

Across the stream of Océanus, past the Cimmerians' permanent dusk. Odysseus digs a trench there, lets the shades drink, and hears from Tiresias what the rest of his life will cost him.

Bonds

• The Suitors dwell in Hades — join the shades in the asphodel
• Odysseus visits Hades — crosses Océanus to question the dead
• Tiresias dwells in Hades — keeps his mind among the shades
• Anticleia dwells in Hades — slips three times through his arms
• Agamemnon dwells in Hades — still telling of his murder
• Achilles dwells in Hades — first among the unhappy dead
• Persephone queen of Hades — dread mistress of the shades
• Elpenor dwells in Hades — first shade to meet him
• Ajax dwells in Hades — the shade that stands apart

Appears in

• Book X Aeolus, the Laestrigonians, and Circè
• Book XI Visit of Odysseus to the Land of the Dead
• Book XXIV Conclusion

Scenes

1. Athena’s Dream Visit — Book VI. Athena urges Nausicaä to wash robes
2. The fleet regained — Book IX. Polyphemus’s curse, ship dodges boulder
3. A Feast on the Shore — Book X. Odysseus urges despairing men to feast
4. The Underworld Errand — Book X. Odysseus must first consult seer Tiresias
5. Circè’s Instructions — Book X. Circè details trench, libations, rites
6. Departure for Erebus — Book X. Weeping crew boards beast-stocked ship
7. Voyage and the Rite — Book XI. Odysseus reaches Ocean, summons the dead
8. Elpenor’s Plea — Book XI. Elpenor begs burial, oar marker
9. The Blood-Rite Secret — Book XI. Odysseus asks how his mother will know him
10. Reunion with Anticleia — Book XI. Anticleia reports on family, eludes embrace
11. Theban and Pylian Queens — Book XI. Antiope, Alcmena, Megara, Epicaste, Chloris
12. Agamemnon’s Fate — Book XI. Aegisthus slays Agamemnon; wife conspires
13. Achilles Among the Dead — Book XI. Achilles’s ghost speaks, Ajax lurks
14. Ajax’s Silent Wrath — Book XI. Ajax’s ghost resents Achilles’s arms
15. Judges and the Damned — Book XI. Minos judges, damned suffer
16. Heracles and the Flight — Book XI. Heracles recalls hound, Odysseus flees
17. Funeral and Return — Book XII. Crew buries Elpenor, Circè arrives
18. Circè’s Farewell Feast — Book XII. Circè feasts them, pledges to warn
19. Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis — Book XII. Circè describes Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis
20. Helios’ Wrath — Book XII. Helios spurs Zeus to wreck the ship
21. The Cretan’s Long Tale — Book XIV. Odysseus invents war, plunder, betrayal
22. Odysseus Tests Eumaeus — Book XV. Odysseus proposes begging, Eumaeus refuses
23. Mad laughter, grim vision — Book XX. Theoclymenus sees blood on the walls
24. Tiresias’s Final Task — Book XXIII. Odysseus foretells inland journey, peace

Hades is named in 28 of the poem’s scenes; these are the twenty-four that carry the most of the name.

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