With things of price; and to the seer alone,
Tiresias, by himself, a ram whose fleece
Is wholly black, the best of all thy flocks.
And after thou hast duly offered prayer
To all the illustrious nations of the dead,
Then sacrifice a ram and a black ewe,
Their faces turned toward Erebus, but thine
The other way and toward the river streams.
Thither the souls of those who died will flock
In multitudes. Then call thy friends, and give
Command to flay in haste the sheep that lie
Slain by the cruel brass, and, burning there
The carcasses, pay worship to the gods, -
The powerful Pluto and dread Proserpine.
Draw then the sword upon thy thigh, and sit,
And suffer none of all those airy forms
To touch the blood until thou first bespeak
Tiresias. He will come, and speedily, -

The leader of the people, — and will tell
What voyage thou must make, what length of

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635

640

645

way

Thou yet must measure, and will show thee how 650 Thou mayst return across the fishy deep.'

"She spake; and while she spake the Morn looked forth

Upon her golden throne. The Nymph bestowed
On me a cloak and tunic, and arrayed
Herself in a white robe with ample folds, -

A delicate web and graceful. Round her loins
She clasped a shining zone of gold, and hung

655

A veil upon her forehead. Forth I went
Throughout the palace and aroused my friends,
And thus I said in cheerful tones to each :-

"No longer give yourselves to idle rest And pleasant slumber; we are to depart. The gracious Circè counsels us to go.'

"I spake, and easily their generous minds Inclined to me. Yet brought I not away All my companions safely from the isle. Elpenor was the youngest of our band, Not brave in war was he, nor wise in thought. He, overcome with wine, and for the sake Of coolness, had lain down to sleep, apart From all the rest, in Circè's sacred house; And as my friends bestirred themselves, the noise And tumult roused him; he forgot to come

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670

By the long staircase; headlong from the roof
He plunged; his neck was broken at the spine, 675
And his soul went to the abode of death.

"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 Circè sends us elsewhere, to consult

The Theban seer, Tiresias, in the abode

Of Pluto and the dreaded Proserpine.'

680

"I spake, 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.

"Thus as we sadly moved to our good ship Upon the sea-shore, weeping all the while, Circè, meantime, had visited its deck,

685

And there had bound a ram and a black ewe

By means we saw not; for what eye discerns

690

The presence of a deity, who moves

From place to place, and wills not to be seen?"

BOOK XI.

"N We drew it first into the mighty deep,

OW, when we reached our galley by the shore,

And set the mast and sails, and led on board
The sheep, and sorrowfully and in tears

Embarked ourselves. The fair-haired and august 5
Circè, expert in music, sent with us

A kindly fellow-voyager, a wind

-

That breathed behind the dark-prowed bark, and

swelled

ΤΟ

The sails; and now, with all things in their place
Throughout the ship, we sat us down, the breeze 10
And helmsman guiding us upon our way.
All day our sails were stretched, as o'er the deep
Our vessel ran; the sun went down; the paths
Of the great sea were darkened, and our bark
Reached the far confines of Océanus.

15

"There lies the land, and there the people dwell

Of the Cimmerians, in eternal cloud

And darkness. Never does the glorious sun
Look on them with his rays, when he goes up
Into the starry sky, nor when again

20

He sinks from heaven to earth. Unwholesome night
O'erhangs the wretched race. We touched the land,
And, drawing up our galley on the beach,
Took from on board the sheep, and followed on
Beside the ocean-stream until we reached
The place of which the goddess Circè spake.
"Here Perimedes and Eurylochus

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30

Held in their grasp the victims, while I drew
The trusty sword upon my thigh, and scooped
A trench in earth, a cubit long and wide,
Round which we stood, and poured to all the dead
Libations, milk and honey first, and next
Rich wine, and lastly water, scattering

White meal upon them. Then I offered prayer
Fervently to that troop of airy forms,
And made a vow that I would sacrifice,
When I at last should come to Ithaca,
A heifer without blemish, barren yet,
In my own courts, and heap the altar-pyre
With things of price, and to the seer alone,
Tiresias, by himself, a ram whose fleece

35

40

Was wholly black, the best of all my flocks. "When I had worshipped thus with prayer and

VOWS

The nations of the dead, I took the sheep

And pierced their throats above the hollow trench. 45 The blood flowed dark; and thronging round me

came

Souls of the dead from Erebus,

- young wives And maids unwedded, men worn out with years And toil, and virgins of a tender age

In their new grief, and many a warrior slain

In battle, mangled by the spear, and clad
In bloody armor, who about the trench
Flitted on every side, now here, now there,
With gibbering cries, and I grew pale with fear.
Then calling to my friends, I bade them flay
The victims lying slaughtered by the knife,
And, burning them with fire, invoke the gods, -
The mighty Pluto and dread Proserpine.
Then from my thigh I drew the trusty sword,
And sat me down, and suffered none of all
Those airy phantoms to approach the blood
Until I should bespeak the Theban seer.
"And first the soul of my companion came,

Elpenor, for he was not buried yet

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60

In earth's broad bosom. We had left him dead 65

In Circè's halls, unwept and unentombed.

We had another task. But when I now

Beheld I pitied him, and, shedding tears,

I said these winged words: How camest thou,
Elpenor, hither into these abodes

70

Of night and darkness? Thou hast made more

speed,