elpenor_third-(last)-lesson-in-ancient-greek-(inflection-prepositions).pdf

Learning Greek - Lesson 3

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LESSON 3

HADES - From Homer's Odyssey

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Learning Greek - Lesson 3

The Underworld

O DYSSEY is about the return of Odysseus to his Οἶκος . Οἶκος (=home) means

mainly one's family and kinship. The crucial point, where Odyssey meets with

Iliad, is the 11th rhapsody, the so-called νέκυια (=sacrifice to the dead) .

[ √ NEK = death, produced a series of words related with death, like νέκυς

(= νεκρός =dead man, corpse), νεκὰς (a pile of corpses) or νέκταρ (=divine drink, a

drink that overcomes death: - ταρ means "destroy, overcome"). ]

Anxious about his returning home, Odysseus visits the land of the dead to

consult the prophet Teiresias. The primary characteristic of that land is what

Homer calls νὺξ (night) ὀλοὴ (destructive) . What exactly does this night and

darkness destroy?

I N HOMER there is life after death. He calls the life of the dead, among other

epithets, δῆµος (community, populace) and πόλις (city) . Ἀΐδης (= Πλούτων ) is

the God of the underworld, brother of Zeus (sometimes he is called by Homer

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Learning Greek - Lesson 3

even Ζεὺς καταχθόνιος = Zeus of the underworld). Ἀΐδης means the one that

has not εἶδος (=form and visible presence). Πλούτων is related with the word

Πλοῦτος (=richness, abundance). What kind of richness exists in the formless,

invisible, δῆµος of the underworld?

When Odysseus arrived in that land, he made a blood-offering to the dead, a

sacrifice called in Greek νέκυια (remember what we said above for the root

√ NEK ).

Sensing the blood ( αἷµα ) of the sheep the souls of the dead approached, " young

bachelors, old men worn out with toil, maids who had been crossed in love, and brave

men who had been killed in battle, with their armour still smirched with blood ".

The souls would become able to talk with Odysseus, only if they drank from the

blood. However, to ensure that he wouldn't miss the prophet Teiresias,

Odysseus did not let any of them drink before he conversed with him.

There came also the soul of Odysseus' mother, sitting by the blood without

saying a word and without recognising ( ἀναγινώσκειν ) her son. Teiresias told

Odysseus that " Any one of the dead that you let taste of the blood will talk with you

verily, but if you do not let them have any blood they will go away again ". Odysseus let

her mother drink blood and talked to her. After their talk he wanted to embrace

her,

"Thrice I sprang towards her and tried to clasp her in my arms, but each time she flitted

from my embrace as a semblance ( εἴκελον ) of a shadow or even of a dream, and being

touched to the quick I said to her, 'Mother, why do you not stay still when I would

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Learning Greek - Lesson 3

embrace you? If we could throw our

arms around one another we might

find sad comfort in the sharing of our

sorrows even in the house of Hades;

does Persephone want to lay a still

further load of grief upon me by

mocking me with a specter ( εἴδωλον )

only?'

"'My son,' she answered, 'most ill-

fated of all mankind, it is not

Persephone that is beguiling you, but

this is the law ( δίκη ) for all the

mortals ( βροτῶν ), when they die.

The sinews no longer hold the flesh

( σάρκας ) and bones ( ὀστέα )

together; these perish in the fierceness

of consuming fire as soon as life ( θυµὸς ) has left the body, and the soul ( ψυχὴ ) flits

away as though it were a dream ( ὄνειρος ). Now, however, go back to the light of day as

soon as you can, and note all these things that you may tell them to your wife hereafter.'"

Odysseus saw Sisyphus

"at his endless task raising his prodigious stone with both his hands. With hands and feet

he tried to roll it up to the top of the hill, but always, just before he could roll it over on to

the other side, its weight would be too much for him, and the pitiless stone would come

thundering down again on to the plain. Then he would begin trying to push it up hill

again, and the sweat ran off him and the steam rose after him".

He saw many heroes, until

" so many thousands of dead came round me and uttered such appalling cries, that I was

panic stricken… ".

Among the dead there was also Achilles. He was with Patroclus and Antilochus

and also with Ajax - the most brave man after Achilles. Achilles wondered why

Odysseus descended to the underworld, a place where,

νεκροὶ ἀφραδέες ναίουσι, βροτῶν εἴδωλα καµόντων

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Learning Greek - Lesson 3

(which means)

νεκροὶ (dead) ἀφραδέες (unconscious) ναίουσι (dwell) ,

εἴδωλα (specters) βροτῶν (of mortals) καµόντων (who died)

Odysseus explains why he came and tries to comfort Achilles:

"As for you, Achilles, no one was ever yet so fortunate as you have been, nor ever will be,

for you were adored like a God by all us Argives as long as you were alive, and now that

you are here you are a great prince among the dead. Do not, therefore, take it so much to

heart even if you are dead".

To which the great and glorious, the most adored in all Greece, answered:

"Say not a word in death's favour; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's

house and be above ground ( ἐπάρουρος ) than king of kings among the demolished

( καταφθιµένοισιν ) dead ( νεκύεσσι )".

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