to consult the soul of Theban Tiresias, a blind prophet, whose mind is firm; to him even when dead Proserpine has given understanding, alone to be prudent; but the rest flit[1] about as shades.'
"Thus she spoke; but my dear heart was broken; and I sat down on the bed and wept, nor did my mind wish to live any longer and behold the light of the sun. But when I was satiated with weeping and rolling about, then answering her with words I addressed her:
"'O Circe, who will conduct me on this voyage? no one has yet come to Pluto's in a black ship.'
"Thus I spoke; but she, the divine one of goddesses, immediately answered me: 'O noble son of Laertes, much-contriving Ulysses, let not the desire of a guide for thy ship be at all a care to thee: but having erected the mast, and spread out the white sails, sit down: and let the blast of the north wind carry it. But when thou shalt have passed through the ocean in thy ship, where is the easy-dug[2] shore, and the groves of Proserpine, and tall poplars, and fruit-destroying willows, there draw up thy ship in the deep-eddying ocean, and do thou thyself go to the spacious house of Pluto. Here indeed both Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus,[3] which is a stream from the water of Styx, flow into Acheron, and there is a rock, and the meeting of two loud-sounding rivers. There then, O hero, approaching near as I command thee, dig a trench, the width of a cubit each way: and pour around it libations to all the dead, first with mixed honey, then with sweet wine, again the third time with water:[4] and sprinkle white meal
- ↑ ἀΐσσω is properly used of the wandering, uncertain motion of ghosts. So Eur. Hec. 31.
- ↑ I cannot profess myself satisfied with this interpretation of λάχεια, which was a doubtful word in the days of Eustathius. (See on Od. ix. 116.) Probably we should read ἐλάχεια in this passage also. Cf. intpp. Hesych. t. i. p. 1165, sq. t. ii. p. 435. Villois. on Apoll. Lex. s. v.
- ↑ Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 577:
"Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage." - ↑ On these lustrations to the dead, see my notes on Æsch. Pers. pp. 72, 83, ed. Bohn, and on Soph. Œd. Col. vs. 999, do.
