The Daily Odyssey: June 2
“Now swift I waved my falchion o’er the blood;
Back started the pale throngs, and trembling stood,
Round the black trench the gore untasted flows,
Till awful from the shades Tiresias rose.
“There wandering through the gloom I first survey’d,
New to the realms of death, Elpenor’s shade:
His cold remains all naked to the sky
On distant shores unwept, unburied lie.
Sad at the sight I stand, deep fix’d in woe,
And ere I spoke the tears began to flow.
“‘O say what angry power Elpenor led
To glide in shades, and wander with the dead?
How could thy soul, by realms and seas disjoin’d,
Outfly the nimble sail, and leave the lagging wind?
“The ghost replied: ‘To hell my doom I owe,
Demons accursed, dire ministers of woe!
My feet, through wine unfaithful to their weight,
Betray’d me tumbling from a towery height:
Staggering I reel’d, and as I reel’d I fell,
Lux’d the neck-joint—my soul descends to hell.
But lend me aid, I now conjure thee lend,
By the soft tie and sacred name of friend!
By thy fond consort! by thy father’s cares!
By loved Telemachus’ blooming years?
For well I know that soon the heavenly powers
Will give thee back to-day, and Circe’s shores:
There pious on my cold remains attend,
There call to mind thy poor departed friend.
The tribute of a tear is all I crave,
And the possession of a peaceful grave.
But if, unheard, in vain compassion plead,
Revere the gods. The gods avenge the dead!
A tomb along the watery margin raise,
The tomb with manly arms and trophies grace,
To show posterity Elpenor was.
There high in air, memorial of my name,
Fix the smooth oar, and bid me live to fame.’
“To whom with tears: ‘These rites, O mournful shade,
Due to thy ghost, shall to thy ghost be paid.’
“Still as I spoke the phantom seem’d to moan,
Tear follow’d tear, and groan succeeded groan.
But, as my waving sword the blood surrounds,
The shade withdrew, and mutter’d empty sounds.
“There as the wondrous visions I survey’d,
All pale ascends my royal mother’s shade:
A queen, to Troy she saw our legions pass;
Now a thin form is all Anticlea was!
Struck at the sight I melt with filial woe,
And down my cheek the pious sorrows flow,
Yet as I shook my falchion o’er the blood,
Regardless of her son the parent stood.