ODYSSEUS CONVERSES WITH HIS MOTHER AND AGAMEMNON
"When Tiresias had gone, my mother came back to the dark trench and
drank of the blood. She knew me at once and cried out: 'Oh, my child,
how didst thou ever come down to this gloomy place alive? Art thou
on thy way home from Troy? And hast thou not seen Ithaca yet, nor
thy wife and child?'
"I answered her: 'Dear mother, I was compelled to come down here in
order to consult the soul of the prophet Tiresias about my return;
for I have not yet touched foot to Grecian soil. I have been driven
about on strange seas from year to year, and have suffered misfortune
after misfortune. Oh, tell me, my mother, how didst thou die? Did
some lingering disease waste thy life, or didst thou meet a sudden,
painless death?
"'Tell me of my father and of my son. Do they still hold rule over
Ithaca? Or has someone snatched it away from them, thinking I was
never to return? How fares my wife, Penelope? Is she still faithful
to the husband of her youth, or has she married another?'
"To all this my mother answered: 'My son, Penelope is in the home
where thou didst leave her, and she weeps for thee day and night.
Nobody has usurped thy kingdom, and Telemachos has charge of thy royal
estates. But thy father dwells on thy farm, and shares the life of
the servants. He seldom goes down to the city. The grief he feels
for loss of thee has made him old, and will hasten his death, as it
caused mine, for I could not live without thee.'
"So spake my mother, and I longed to clasp her to my heart. Three
times I threw my arms around her, and three times she passed through
them like a shadow. Then I cried out in sorrow: 'Oh, my dear mother!
why can I not clasp thee to my heart and hold thee in my arms, that
we may lose for a while our sense of loneliness and misery?'
"My mother spoke and said: 'It is the lot of all our race when they
are dead. When life departs we have no bones and flesh, but the soul
flies off and flits about from one place to another. Hasten back to
the pleasant daylight, and when thou dost reach home tell thy wife
what I have said.'
"When my mother had gone, I saw the soul of Agamemnon approaching,
together with the shades of those of his companions who had perished
with him. The moment he had drunk of the blood he knew me and raised
a loud wail. He stretched out his hands to me, and I tried to seize
them, but I clutched only the empty air.
"Then I began to weep, too, and said to him: 'Famous son of Atreus,
King Agamemnon, tell me how thou didst die. Did Poseidon wreck thee
on the sea in a terrible storm, or didst thou fall in war, fighting
on the land?'
"Whereupon the king told me the dire story of his home-coming and
his death at traitors' hands. 'When I trod my native soil again after
a long absence,' he said, 'I was overcome with joy at the thought
of seeing my wife and children once more. But I was slain in my own
home, and my wife did not even close my eyes as my soul came on its
way to these dark realms.'
"I answered: 'Alas! how the gods must hate the family of Atreus on
account of the unfaithfulness of its women!'
"Agamemnon replied: 'Oh, son of Laertes, thou art a fortunate man,
for thou hast a faithful wife. Penelope is wise and virtuous. I
remember, when we were ready to start for Troy she was a young wife
with a little babe in her arms, which she pressed to her bosom. He
must be a man now. Thou art a happy father. Thou wilt see thy son
at home in Ithaca.
"'No such good fortune can ever come to me. My wife did not even let
me see my son before she slew me. Tell me about him, I beseech thee,
how he is. Does he still live in Sparta?'
"'Son of Atreus,' I said, 'do not ask me where thy son is. I cannot
tell whether he is alive or not, and this is no time for idle
conjectures;' and we wept as I spoke."