“Here Perimedes and Eurylochus Held in their grasp the victims, while I drew The trusty sword upon my thigh, and scooped A trench in earth, a cubit long and wide, Round which we stood, and poured to all the dead Libations—milk and honey first, and next Rich wine, and lastly water, scattering White meal upon them. Then I offered prayer Fervently to that troop of airy forms, And made a vow that I would sacrifice, When I at last should come to Ithaca, A heifer without blemish, barren yet, In my own courts, and heap the altar-pyre With things of price, and to the seer alone, Tiresias, by himself, a ram whose fleece Was wholly black, the best of all my flocks.
“When I had worshipped thus with prayer and vows The nations of the dead, I took the sheep And pierced their throats above the hollow trench. The blood flowed dark; and thronging round me came Souls of the dead from Erebus—young wives And maids unwedded, men worn out with years And toil, and virgins of a tender age In their new grief, and many a warrior slain In battle, mangled by the spear, and clad In bloody armor, who about the trench Flitted on every side, now here, now there, With gibbering cries, and I grew pale with fear.
Then calling to my friends, I bade them flay The victims lying slaughtered by the knife, And, burning them with fire, invoke the gods— The mighty Pluto and dread Proserpine.
Then from my thigh I drew the trusty sword, And sat me down, and suffered none of all Those airy phantoms to approach the blood Until I should bespeak the Theban seer.
“And first the soul of my companion came, Elpenor, for he was not buried yet In earth’s broad bosom. We had left him dead In Circè’s halls, unwept and unentombed. We had another task. But when I now Beheld I pitied him, and, shedding tears, I said these winged words: ‘How