BOOK XI.

ARGUMENT.

THE DESCENT INTO HELL.

Ulysses continues his narration. How he arrived at the land of the

Cimmerians, and what ceremonies he performed to invoke the dead.

The manner of his descent, and the apparition of the shades: his

conversation with Elpenor, and with Tiresias, who informs him in a

prophetic manner of his fortunes to come. He meets his mother

Anticles, from whom he learns the state of his family. He sees the

shades of the ancient heroines, afterwards of the heroes, and

converses in particular with Agamemnon and Achilles. Ajax keeps at

a sullen distance, and disdains to answer him. He then beholds

Tityus, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Hercules; till he is deterred from

further curiosity by the apparition of horrid spectres, and the

cries of the wicked in torments.

"Now to the shores we bend, a mournful train,

Climb the tall bark, and launch into the main;

At once the mast we rear, at once unbind

The spacious sheet, and stretch it to the wind;

Then pale and pensive stand, with cares oppress'd,

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The Odyssey of Homer