Odyssey 10.531 · Book 10, lines 531–534
Orders to the crew, prayers to Hades
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δὴ τότʼ ἔπειθʼ ἑτάροισιν ἐποτρῦναι καὶ ἀνῶξαι μῆλα, τὰ δὴ κατάκειτʼ ἐσφαγμένα νηλέι χαλκῷ, δείραντας κατακῆαι, ἐπεύξασθαι δὲ θεοῖσιν, ἰφθίμῳ τʼ Ἀίδῃ καὶ ἐπαινῇ Περσεφονείῃ·
Then at that time urge and command your companions to flay and burn the sheep that lie there, slaughtered by the pitiless bronze, and to pray to the gods, to mighty Hades and to dread Persephone.
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The setting
Circe tells Odysseus to set his crew to burning the slaughtered sheep and to pray to the rulers of the dead.
A note on this passage
Odysseus is to rouse his companions to flay and burn the slaughtered sheep and to pray to the powers below — mighty Hades and dread Persephone.
Even at the edge of the world the work is divided: the leader gives the order, the crew do the burning. And the prayer names the two rulers of the dead as a pair, Hades and his queen. The underworld has a household and a court, to be petitioned like any great house — and Persephone carries the epithet ἐπαινή, ‘dread,’ the same awe the living feel folded into the very name of the one they must ask.
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