Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Following Circe’s rites Odysseus sailed to the stream of Ocean and the land of the Cimmerians, mist-wrapped at the rim of the world. He dug a trench, poured libations, and slaughtered sheep so that the blood drew the shades. First came Elpenor, begging burial; then Odysseus’s mother Anticleia, whom he could not embrace; then Teiresias, who drank and prophesied: Odysseus would reach Ithaca if he and his men spared Helios’s cattle on Thrinacia; he would find suitors in his house, kill them, and afterward walk inland with an oar until a people mistook it for a winnowing-fan, plant the oar, sacrifice to Poseidon, and die in sleek old age far from the sea. After Teiresias, Anticleia told of Penelope’s loyalty, Telemachus’s growth, and Laertes’ grief—and that she herself had died of longing for her son. Odysseus saw Tyro, Antiope, Alcmene, Leda, and other heroines; then Agamemnon, who warned of treacherous wives and told his own murder; Achilles, who said he would rather be a hired laborer alive than king among the dead; Ajax, still angry over the arms, who would not speak. He glimpsed Minos judging, Orion hunting, Tityus, Tantalus, and Sisyphus in torment, and Heracles’ eidolon (the god himself feasting among immortals). Terror of more monsters drove him back to the ship. Circe later received them, buried Elpenor, and set them on the homeward perils of Book 12.