Conclusion
The souls of the suitors conducted to Hades by Mercury—Agamemnon and Achilles in Hades—Their meeting with the souls of the suitors, and narrative of Amphimedon—Meeting and mutual recognition of Ulysses and his father in the orchard at Ithaca—Insurrection of the Ithacans, with Eupeithes, the father of Antinoüs, at their head—The revolt quelled, Eupeithes slain by Laertes and a lasting peace made between Ulysses and his subject.
Cyllenian Hermes summoned forth the souls Of the slain suitors. In his hand he bore The beautiful golden wand, with which at will He shuts the eyes of men, or opens them From sleep. With this he guided on their way The ghostly rout; they followed, uttering A shrilly wail. As when a flock of bats, Deep in a dismal cavern, fly about And squeak, if one have fallen from the place Where, clinging to each other and the rock, They rested, so that crowd of ghosts went forth With shrill and plaintive cries. Before them moved Beneficent Hermes through those dreary ways, And past the ocean stream they went, and past Leucadia’s rock, the portals of the Sun, And people of the land of dreams, until They reached the fields of asphodel, where dwell The souls, the bodiless forms of those who die.
And there they found the soul of Peleus’ son, His friend Patroclus, and the blameless chief Antilochus, and Ajax, who excelled In stature and in form all other Greeks Save the great son of Peleus. These were grouped Around Achilles. Then approached the ghost Of Agamemnon, Atreus’ son; he seemed In sorrow, and around him others stood, Who in the palace of Aegisthus met Their fate and died. The son of Peleus took The word, and spake to Agamemnon thus:—