Characters
- Achilles — shade in the asphodel meadow whom the suitors encounter
- Agamemnon — shade who questions Amphimedon
- Amphimedon — suitor’s shade who recounts the death in the hall
- Hermes — psychopomp; leads the suitors’ souls with his golden wand
- Odysseus — agent of the slaughter that supplies the shades (frame)
- Olympian gods — newly dead; follow Hermes gibbering
- Telemachus — helper in the slaughter (frame)
Places
- Gates of the Sun — landmark on the road of the dead
- Ithaca — place of the suitors’ death (frame)
- Land of Dreams — landmark on the road of the dead
- Meadow of asphodel — dwelling-place of souls in the underworld
- Ocean’s stream — first landmark on the downward road
- Underworld — destination of the guided shades
- White Rock — landmark on the road of the dead
Themes
Narrative
After Odysseus and Telemachus (with loyal servants) kill the suitors in the hall at Ithaca, Hermes of Cyllene takes up his role as conductor of souls. In his hand he holds the fair golden wand with which he lulls to sleep the eyes of whom he will, or wakes them again. With it he marshals the gibbering shades of the dead suitors. They follow, squeaking like bats in the depths of a wondrous cave when one falls from the cluster on the rock and the rest cling, screaming. So the souls move together, and Hermes the Helper leads them down the dank ways.
They pass Ocean’s stream, the White Rock, the gates of the Sun, and the land of Dreams, and soon come to the meadow of asphodel where the souls of the dead dwell. There the shades of the suitors meet the ghosts of Achilles, Agamemnon, and other heroes, and Agamemnon hears from Amphimedon’s shade the tale of the slaughter in Odysseus’s hall.
The brief episode confirms Hermes’s classical office as *psychopompos*: not merely messenger among the living gods, but guide who shepherds the dead to the house of Hades. It complements his youthful exploits in the Homeric Hymn (003) with a mature cult and epic function.