Dawn was not yet up when the house stirred with our resolve to leave. Even so I did not lead them away unharmed. There was one, Elpenor, the youngest, not especially brave in battle or sound in mind. He had lain apart on Circe’s roof, seeking coolness, heavy with wine. Hearing the noise and bustle of his companions he jumped up suddenly and in his confusion forgot to go down by the long ladder. He fell straight down from the roof. His neck broke away from the spine. His spirit went down to the house of Hades. We left him there unburied in our haste — a grief that would find us later.
Then Circe took me aside and said we must first go to the house of Hades and dread Persephone to seek the shade of the blind Theban prophet Tiresias — he alone among the dead kept his wits; Persephone granted him mind even in death. My spirit broke at that; I sat and wept and said no living man had ever sailed a black ship to Hades.
Circe told me not to worry about a guide. Set the mast, spread the sail, and the breath of the North Wind would carry us. When we crossed Ocean’s stream to the shore where the tall poplars and willows of Persephone grow, we must beach the ship and walk to the house of Hades. There the River of Fire and the River of Wailing join in Acheron.
I was to dig a pit a cubit each way, pour honey-milk, sweet wine, and water, scatter white barley, and vow to the powerless dead that back in Ithaca I would sacrifice my best barren heifer and heap the pyre with treasure, and for Tiresias alone a black ram, the finest of the flock.
Then I must cut the throats of a ram and a black ewe, turning their heads toward Erebus, myself facing the stream. Many shades would come. I must not let them touch the blood until I had questioned Tiresias. The seer would tell me the road and how I might reach home over the fish-filled sea.
Before we cast off I walked the strand once more at first light. Circe’s instructions for the pit and the blood and Tiresias were fixed in my mind. Behind us on the roof Elpenor’s body still lay where he had fallen.