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"‘Mother,’ said I,
‘I was forced to come here to consult the ghost
[psukhê] of the Theban seer Teiresias. I have
never yet been near the Achaean land nor set foot on my native
country, and I have had nothing but one long series of misfortunes
from the very first day that I set out with Agamemnon for Ilion, the
land of noble steeds, to fight the Trojans. But tell me, and tell me
true, in what way did you die? Did you have a long illness, or did
heaven grant you a gentle easy passage to eternity? Tell me also
about my father, and the son whom I left behind me; is my property
still in their hands, or has some one else got hold of it, who thinks
that I shall not return to claim it? Tell me again what my wife
intends doing, and in what mind [noos] she is; does
she live with my son and guard my estate securely, or has she made
the best match she could and married again?’
"My mother answered, ‘Your
wife still remains in your house, but she is in great distress of
mind and spends her whole time in tears both night and day. No one as
yet has got possession of your fine property, and Telemakhos still
holds your lands undisturbed. He has to entertain largely, as of
course he must, considering his position as a magistrate, and how
every one invites him; your father remains at his old place in the
country and never goes near the town. He has no comfortable bed nor
bedding; in the winter he sleeps on the floor in front of the fire
with the men and goes about all in rags, but in summer, when the warm
weather comes on again, he lies out in the vineyard on a bed of vine
leaves thrown anyhow upon the ground, in grief
[akhos]. He is in continual distress
[penthos] about your never having achieved a
homecoming [nostos], and suffers more and more as he
grows older. As for my own end it was in this wise: heaven did not
take me swiftly and painlessly in my own house, nor was I attacked by
any illness such as those that generally wear people out and kill
them, but my longing to know what you were doing and the force of my
affection for you - this it was that was the death of
me.’
"Then I tried to find some way of
embracing my mother's ghost [psukhê].
Thrice I sprang towards her and tried to clasp her in my arms, but
each time she flitted from my embrace as it were a dream or phantom,
and being touched to the quick I said to her, ‘Mother, why do
you not stay still when I would embrace you? If we could throw our
arms around one another we might find sad comfort in the sharing of
our sorrows [akhos] even in the house of Hades; does
Persephone want to lay a still further load of grief upon me by
mocking me with a phantom only?’
"‘My son,’ she
answered, ‘most ill-fated of all humankind, it is not Persephone
that is beguiling you, but all people are like this when they are
dead. The sinews no longer hold the flesh and bones together; these
perish in the fierceness of consuming fire as soon as life has left
the body, and the soul [psukhê] flits away as
though it were a dream. 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.’
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