Visit to the Underworld

The Visit to the Underworld (Nekyia) is the central oracular and psychological episode of Odysseus's wanderings, in which he journeys to the realm of the dead to consult the prophet Teiresias, receives a prophecy that defines the remainder of his homecoming, and encounters the ghosts of his mother, his former comrades, and the great heroes of the Trojan War, thereby confronting the cost of his own survival and the shape of his future.

Causes and Preparation

Circe, after detaining Odysseus and his crew for a full year on her Aeaean island, reveals that before they can sail home they must undertake a journey no living man has made: they must go to the house of Hades and of dread Persephone to consult the ghost of the blind Theban prophet Teiresias, whose understanding alone remains unshaken among the dead. Odysseus is dismayed and weeps at the prospect, but Circe gives him precise instructions. He is to sail to the shores of Oceanus, beach his ship, and dig a trench a cubit in length, breadth, and depth. Into this trench he must pour a drink-offering to all the dead: first honey mixed with milk, then wine, and thirdly water, sprinkling white barley meal over the whole. He must promise the ghosts that when he returns to Ithaca he will sacrifice a barren heifer, the best he has, and load the pyre with good things, and he must promise Teiresias a black sheep all to himself, the finest in all his flocks. After these prayers he is to sacrifice a ram and a black ewe, bending their heads toward Erebus, while he himself turns away toward the river. Then, drawing his sword, he must sit and prevent any other ghost from approaching the blood until Teiresias has answered his questions.

The Journey and the Ritual

Odysseus and his crew sail with a fair wind sent by Circe until they reach the deep waters of Oceanus and the land of the Cimmerians, a people enshrouded in perpetual mist and darkness upon whom the sun never shines. There they beach the ship and walk along the waters of Oceanus to the place Circe had described. With Perimedes and Eurylochus holding the victims, Odysseus digs the trench, makes the prescribed drink-offerings, and cuts the throats of the two sheep, letting the blood run into the trench. Immediately the ghosts come trooping up from Erebus: brides, young bachelors, old men worn out with toil, maids who had been crossed in love, and brave men killed in battle with their armour still smirched with blood. They flit round the trench with a strange screaming sound that makes Odysseus turn pale with fear. He orders his men to flay the carcasses and burn them as offerings while he sits with his drawn sword, preventing any ghost from approaching the blood until Teiresias has spoken.

The Prophecy of Teiresias

The first ghost to approach is that of Elpenor, the youngest of Odysseus's crew, who had fallen from Circe's roof in a drunken stupor and broken his neck, his soul descending to Hades while his body remained unburied. He begs Odysseus to return to Aeaea and give him proper funeral rites, building a barrow on the sea shore and planting his oar upon the grave. Odysseus promises to do so. Then comes the ghost of his mother Anticlea, whom he had left alive when he set out for Troy; he is moved to tears but will not let her approach the blood until he has questioned Teiresias. The prophet appears with his golden sceptre, drinks the blood, and delivers his prophecy. He tells Odysseus that Poseidon still nurses a bitter grudge for the blinding of his son Polyphemus and will make the homeward journey hard. Odysseus may yet reach Ithaca if he and his men can restrain themselves when they reach the Thrinacian island, where the cattle and sheep of the sun-god Helios graze. If they leave these flocks unharmed, they may after much hardship reach home; but if they harm them, Odysseus will lose his ship and all his men, and will return alone, in another man's ship, to find his house overrun by arrogant suitors devouring his substance. After taking his revenge on the suitors, Odysseus must take a well-made oar and travel inland until he comes to a people who know nothing of the sea and mistake the oar for a winnowing shovel; there he must fix the oar in the ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Poseidon. Then he may return home and offer hecatombs to all the gods, and death shall come to him from the sea, gently, in a ripe old age, with his people blessed.

Encounters with the Dead

After Teiresias departs, Odysseus allows his mother Anticlea to drink the blood. She recognizes him and speaks fondly, revealing that Penelope still remains in his house, grieving and weeping night and day, that Telemachus still holds his lands undisturbed, and that Laertes lives in the country in wretched conditions, sleeping on the floor in winter and on a bed of leaves in summer, grieving continually for his son's absence. She tells Odysseus that she herself died not from illness but from her longing for him and the force of her affection. Three times Odysseus tries to embrace her, and three times she flits from his arms like a dream or phantom, explaining that the sinews no longer hold the flesh and bones together after death, and the soul is but a shadow. Then Persephone sends up the ghosts of the wives and daughters of famous men: Tyro, Antiope, Alcmena, Epicaste, Chloris, Leda, Iphimedeia, Phaedra, Procris, Ariadne, Maera, Clymene, and Eriphyle. Each tells her story, and Odysseus questions them all. After the female ghosts depart, the ghost of Agamemnon approaches, weeping bitterly, and tells Odysseus the story of his murder by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, warning him to be wary even of his own wife. The ghost of Achilles comes with Patroclus, Antilochus, and Ajax; Achilles declares that he would rather be a paid servant on earth than king of all the dead, and asks eagerly about his son Neoptolemus. Odysseus tells him of his son's prowess in battle and inside the Trojan Horse, and Achilles strides off exulting across the meadow of asphodel. Ajax alone holds aloof, still angry over the judgement that awarded Achilles' armour to Odysseus; Odysseus tries to pacify him but Ajax turns away in silence. Odysseus then sees Minos judging the dead, Orion driving the ghosts of wild beasts, Tityus stretched over nine acres with vultures eating his liver, Tantalus standing in a lake that recedes when he tries to drink with fruit trees that toss their branches beyond his reach, and Sisyphus endlessly rolling his stone uphill. Finally he sees the phantom of Heracles, who speaks of his own labours and then departs. So many thousands of ghosts gather round Odysseus with appalling cries that he becomes panic-stricken, fearing that Persephone might send the Gorgon's head against him, and he hastens back to his ship.

Consequences and Aftermath

Odysseus and his crew sail back down the river Oceanus and return to the Aeaean island, where they give Elpenor proper funeral rites, burning his body and armour, raising a cairn, and fixing his oar upon the grave. Circe, knowing they have returned from Hades, comes to meet them and provides a feast, then takes Odysseus aside to instruct him on the remaining stages of his voyage: the Sirens, the Wandering Rocks, Scylla and Charybdis, and the fatal island of Thrinacia. The Nekyia thus serves as the structural and thematic pivot of Odysseus's wanderings, transforming him from a survivor of physical trials into a man who has confronted death itself and received a comprehensive vision of his past, present, and future. The prophecy of Teiresias governs every subsequent decision Odysseus makes, and the warnings about the cattle of the Sun and the suitors create the dramatic tension that drives the second half of the epic.