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Descents of Odysseus, Aeneas, and Heracles 1

 

Odysseus came to the Underworld in order to meet the seer Tiresias and learn about the outcome of his wanderings. It was the witch Circe who gave Odysseus this task, and the instructions as to how to do it. She also sent the wind who carried Odysseus' ship to the farthest realm of Oceanus, allowing him and his crew to find the Grove of Persephone that Circe had indicated. Circe instructed Odysseus to go to a rock which is located in the place where the rivers Pyriphlegethon (or Phlegethon) and Cocytus flow into Acheron. In that place Odysseus dug a pit around which he poured a libation to all the dead, first with honey and milk, then with wine, and finally with water. Then, having sprinkled white barley over the libation, he invocated the spirits of the dead, and after the invocation he cut the throats of a ram and an ewe. Then the souls of the dead came gathering about the pit.

These are the souls of those whom Odysseus met when he descended to Hades:
Achilles	On seeing Achilles' soul said Odysseus: "... Achilles, the most fortunate man that ever was or will be ... honoured as though you were a god ... and now you are a mighty prince among the dead. For you ... Death should have lost its sting." [Odysseus to Achilles. Homer, Odyssey 11.480] But Achilles replied: "Do not speak soothingly to me of death, Odysseus. I should choose to serve as the serf of another, rather than to be lord over the dead." [Achilles to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 11.486] And after that salutation, Odysseus told him what had happened in Troy after Achilles' death.
Agamemnon	Agamemnon described to Odysseus how he had been murdered by Aegisthus and his own wife during a banquet. His wife's treason inspired him to lecture Odysseus about marriage: "Never be too gentle with your wife, nor show her all that is in your mind." [Agamemnon to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 11.440] And the soul of the man who had always taken women through violence dared to add: "Women, I tell you, are no longer to be trusted." [Agamemnon to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 11.455]
Ajax 1	Ajax 1, still embittered by the defeat Odysseus inflicted on him on account of the arms of Achilles, refused to talk, and that is why Odysseus said to him: "So not even death itself could make you forget your anger with me on account of those accursed arms." [Odysseus to Ajax 1. Homer, Odyssey 11.554] But Ajax 1 left without a word.
Alcmena	Mother of Heracles 1.
Anticlia 1	Odysseus was stirred to compassion when he saw his mother's soul, for she was still alive when he left Ithaca. And yet Odysseus did not allow the soul of his own mother to approach the sacrificial blood before he had talked to Tiresias. But later, when she was allowed to approach, she told him news about his father Laertes, who lived the life of a recluse and yearned for his return home. Likewise she told him that the cause of her own death had been her heartache for him. Odysseus tried to embrace her, but the ghost slipped through his arms, and as he cried to his mother in despair she explained: "We no longer have sinews keeping the bones and flesh together, but once the life-force has departed from our bones, all is consumed by the heat of fire, and the soul slips away like a dream ..." [Anticlia 1 to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 11.219]
Antilochus	Son of Nestor and leader of the Pylians against Troy. He was killed in the war by Hector 1, or by Memnon.
Antiope 3	Mother of Amphion 1 and Zethus.
Ariadne	Daughter of Minos 2 who helped Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth. She was deserted by the man she saved, but Dionysus 2 loved her, though some say that in such a way that he had Artemis kill her, which means that Ariadne died of a sickness.
Chloris 1	Chloris 1 survived the killing of the NIOBIDS, and having married Neleus, became queen of Pylos. She is the mother of Nestor.
Elpenor	Elpenor was one of Odysseus' companions. He fell from the roof of Circe's house and broke his neck. As he had been left behind unburied, he now asked Odysseus to bury him on his return to the island of Aeaea.
Eriphyle	[The story of hateful Eriphyle is at Robe & Necklace of Harmonia 1.]
Heracles 1	Odysseus saw in Hades just the wraith of Heracles 1, for the real Heracles 1, who married Hebe in heaven, is always banqueting with the OLYMPIANS, having been made immortal.
Iphimedia	Mother of the ALOADS, who had the ambition of piling Mount Ossa on Olympus, and Mount Pelion on Ossa, and in that way reach up to heaven [see Zeus, for their attack against his rule].
Jocasta	Jocasta, also called Epicasta 3, is mother and wife of Oedipus. She hanged herself obsessed by the idea of having married her own son.
Leda	Mother of Helen, Clytaemnestra, and the DIOSCURI.
Maera 3
Megara	Heracles 1's wife.
Minos 2	Odysseus saw this former king of Crete sitting with a gold sceptre in his hand, delivering judgement to the dead [see also Underworld].
Orion	Odysseus saw Orion driving together over the field of asphodel wild beasts which he had slain, holding in his hands a club of bronze that could not be broken.
Patroclus 1
Phaedra	Wife of Theseus who fell in love with her stepson.
Procris 2	Wife of Cephalus 1. She was killed accidentally by her husband. Cephalus 1 was son of Deion, son of Aeolus 1, son of Hellen 1, son of Deucalion 1, the man who survived the Flood. Cephalus 1, after whom was named the island of Cephallenia, which is a part of Odysseus' kingdom, is related to Odysseus, for he is father of Arcisius, father of Laertes, who is Odysseus' father. Procris 2 is Odysseus' great grandmother.
Sisyphus	Odysseus saw him being punished by rolling a stone with his hands and head in an effort to heave it over the top of a hill, but as he pushes it to the top it rebounds backward.
Tantalus 1	Odysseus also saw impious Tantalus 1, who is punished by not being able to eat or drink as the water in the lake dries out, and the fruits in the trees are lifted by the wind each time he tries to reach either.
Tiresias	Tiresias, whose mind was unchanged since Persephone had granted him to keep his wits in Hades, warned Odysseus of the wrath of Poseidon, who was angry at him because he had blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus 2, a son of the god. Tiresias also advised Odysseus not to harm the cattle of Helius in Thrinacia (Sicily), and told him about the conditions of his home in Ithaca, where many SUITORS, wishing to marry his wife, lived at his expenses. He also prophesied that Odysseus death would come in his old age, far from the sea, and in a gentle way.
Tityus	Odysseus saw this son of Gaia being punished in the Underworld for having attacked Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis. There a pair of vultures eat his liver and he is powerless to drive them off.
Tyro	Mother of Neleus and Pelias 1.

Aeneas descended to the Underworld, guided by the Sibyl, through a cave in Cumae (Italy). After having passed the entrance where Grief, Anxiety, Diseases, Old Age, Fear, Hunger, Death, Agony, Hypnos, and other creatures dwell, he came to the Elm from which False Dreams cling. Next he followed the road to the river Acheron where he saw the souls of the unburied whom Charon refused to take to the other side. Charon accepted to ferry Aeneas when he saw the Golden Bough that Aeneas was carrying. On the other bank, they first met the hound Cerberus 1, whom the Sibyl put to sleep with a cake of honey and wheat infused with sedative drugs. In the fields behind the cave of Cerberus 1, Aeneas saw those who died in childhood, those who had been condemned to death on a false charge, and those who killed themselves. Next he came to the Vale of Mourning where those who were consumed by unhappy love dwell, and in the farthest fields, before the dividing road, he saw those who were famous in war. Then Aeneas came to the place where the road forks, the left hand leading to Tartarus, and the right, beneath the Palace of Hades to Elysium. In the entrance of the Palace, Aeneas put down his passport, the Golden Bough, and then he proceeded to Elysium, where he met his father Anchises 1, saw souls who were not yet born, and other souls drinking from the waters of the river Lethe (Oblivion) before they were reborn.

Vision of Aeneas at the Elysian Fields: his father shows him both past and future. Behind them is the Cumaean Sibyl

Sources Abbreviations	Apd.2.5.12; Dio.4.25.1, 4.63.5; Hom.Od.11 passim; Hyg.Fab.79; Pau.2.35.10, 9.34.5; Plut.Thes.33.2; Vir.Aen.6 passim; Xenophon, Anabasis 6.2.2.