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The Odyssey Book 11
The Odyssey Book 11
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.
Text Source: Homer. The Odyssey. Project Gutenberg, translated by Alexander Pope, 10 Nov. 2019.
www.gutenberg.org/files/3160/3160-h/3160-h.htm#chap09. Accessed 3 Dec. 2019.