Seba.Health
The Odyssey 11.76–90
‘All this, unhappy man, will I perform and do.’
“Thus we two sat and held sad converse one with the other, I on one side holding my sword over the blood, while on the other side the phantom of my comrade spoke at large.
“Then there came up the spirit of my dead mother, Anticleia, the daughter of great-hearted Autolycus, whom I had left alive when I departed for sacred Ilios. At sight of her I wept, and my heart had compassion on her, but even so I would not suffer her to come near the blood, for all my great sorrow, until I had enquired of Teiresias. “Then there came up the spirit of the Theban Teiresias, bearing his golden staff in his hand, and he knew me and spoke to me: ‘Son of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, what now, hapless man? Why hast thou left the light of the sun and come hither to behold the dead and a region where is no joy?
ἀνδρὸς δυστήνοιο καὶ ἐσσομένοισι πυθέσθαι.
ταῦτά τέ μοι τελέσαι πῆξαί τʼ ἐπὶ τύμβῳ ἐρετμόν,
τῷ καὶ ζωὸς ἔρεσσον ἐὼν μετʼ ἐμοῖς ἑτάροισιν.
ὣς ἔφατʼ, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ μιν ἀμειβόμενος
προσέειπον·
ταῦτά τοι, ὦ δύστηνε, τελευτήσω τε καὶ ἔρξω.
νῶι μὲν ὣς ἐπέεσσιν ἀμειβομένω στυγεροῖσιν
ἥμεθʼ, ἐγὼ μὲν ἄνευθεν ἐφʼ αἵματι φάσγανον ἴσχων,
εἴδωλον δʼ ἑτέρωθεν ἑταίρου πόλλʼ ἀγόρευεν·
ἦλθε δʼ ἐπὶ ψυχὴ μητρὸς κατατεθνηυίης,
Αὐτολύκου θυγάτηρ μεγαλήτορος Ἀντίκλεια,
τὴν ζωὴν κατέλειπον ἰὼν εἰς Ἴλιον ἱρήν.
τὴν μὲν ἐγὼ δάκρυσα ἰδὼν ἐλέησά τε θυμῷ·
ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὣς εἴων προτέρην, πυκινόν περ ἀχεύων,
αἵματος ἆσσον ἴμεν, πρὶν Τειρεσίαο πυθέσθαι.
ἦλθε δʼ ἐπὶ ψυχὴ Θηβαίου Τειρεσίαο