Odyssey 10.490 · Book 10, lines 490–493
First you must go down to Hades
Read the full text in our reader
Circe — ἀλλʼ ἄλλην χρὴ πρῶτον ὁδὸν τελέσαι καὶ ἱκέσθαι εἰς Ἀίδαο δόμους καὶ ἐπαινῆς Περσεφονείης ψυχῇ χρησομένους Θηβαίου Τειρεσίαο, μάντηος ἀλαοῦ, τοῦ τε φρένες ἔμπεδοί εἰσι·
But you must first accomplish another journey, and come to the house of Hades and of dread Persephone, to consult the ghost of Theban Teiresias, the blind seer, whose wits stand steadfast.
Word by word
The setting
Circe names the price of the homeward road. Before Ithaca, Odysseus must make another journey entirely: down to the house of the dead, to question the ghost of the great Theban seer Teiresias.
A note on this passage
The homeward road turns out to run through death. Circe sends Odysseus not west to Ithaca but down to the house of Hades and Persephone, to put his questions to a single ghost, the blind prophet Teiresias. The whole underworld book of the poem is set up in these four lines.
The point of Teiresias is in the last phrase: his wits stand steadfast. He is the exception among the dead. Circe is already hinting at the bleak fact the next unit states outright, that the other dead have lost their minds along with their bodies. Only to this one shade did Persephone grant that his understanding survive, which is why he alone is worth the terrible journey to consult.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 10.490 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 10.490 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/10.490/