[366] As he spoke he girded on his
armor. Then he roused Telemakhos, Philoitios, and Eumaios, and told
them all to put on their armor also. This they did, and armed
themselves. When they had done so, they opened the gates and sallied
forth, Odysseus leading the way. It was now daylight, but Athena
nevertheless concealed them in darkness and led them quickly out of
the town. [372]
Book 24
Scroll 24
[1] Then Hermes of Cyllene summoned the
ghosts [psukhai] of the suitors, and in his hand he
held the fair golden wand with which he seals men's eyes in
sleep or wakes them just as he pleases; with this he roused the
ghosts and led them, while they followed whining and gibbering behind
him. As bats fly squealing in the hollow of some great cave, when one
of them has fallen out of the cluster in which they hang, even so did
the ghosts whine and squeal as Hermes the healer of sorrow led them
down into the dark abode of death. When they had passed the waters of
Okeanos and the rock Leukas, they came to the gates of the sun and
the dmos of dreams, whereon they reached the meadow of
asphodel where dwell the souls and shadows of them that can labor no
more.
[15] Here they found the ghost
[psukh] of Achilles son of Peleus, with those
of Patroklos, Antilokhos, and Ajax, who was the finest and handsomest
man of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus himself.
[19] They gathered round the ghost of
the son of Peleus, and the ghost [psukh] of
Agamemnon joined them, sorrowing bitterly. Round him were gathered
also the ghosts of those who had perished with him in the house of
Aigisthos; and the ghost [psukh] of Achilles
spoke first.
[24] "Son of Atreus," it said, "we used
to say that Zeus had loved you better from first to last than any
other hero, for you were leader over many and brave men, when we were
all fighting together in the dmos of the Trojans; yet
the hand of death, which no mortal can escape, was laid upon you all
too early. Better for you had you fallen in the Trojan
dmos in the hey-day of your renown, for the Achaeans
would have built a mound over your ashes, and your son would have
been heir to your kleos, whereas it has now been your lot to
come to a most miserable end."
