Odyssey 10.526 · Book 10, lines 526–530
The black ram and the turning away
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αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν εὐχῇσι λίσῃ κλυτὰ ἔθνεα νεκρῶν, ἔνθʼ ὄιν ἀρνειὸν ῥέζειν θῆλύν τε μέλαιναν εἰς Ἔρεβος στρέψας, αὐτὸς δʼ ἀπονόσφι τραπέσθαι ἱέμενος ποταμοῖο ῥοάων· ἔνθα δὲ πολλαὶ ψυχαὶ ἐλεύσονται νεκύων κατατεθνηώτων.
But when with prayers you have entreated the famed tribes of the dead, then sacrifice a ram, a male, and a black ewe, turning them toward Erebus, and turn yourself away, pressing on toward the streams of the river; and there many souls of the perished dead will come.
Word by word
The setting
Circe describes the moment of slaughter: the victims killed over the pit, heads toward the dark, while Odysseus himself turns aside and the dead begin to gather.
A note on this passage
When the prayers are finished, Odysseus is to cut the throats of a ram and a black ewe over the pit, their heads turned down toward Erebus, while he himself turns away toward the river. Then the souls of the dead will gather.
Everything here is directional. The victims face down into the dark; the living man faces away. The rite works by orientation — you must not look at what you are calling up. The blood is given to the dead, but the one who spills it keeps his back to them, hurrying toward the running water, as if the summons and the summoner must never meet eyes.
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