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[512] Ἀίδεω … δόμον. It is not easy to realise the Homeric conception of the kingdom of Hades. In a general way it would seem as if the place of the departed was to be regarded as subterranean; such phrases constantly recurring as “χθόνα δύμεναι” Il.6. 411, “γαῖαν ὕπο στυγερὴν ἀφικέσθαι” Od.20. 81.The house of Hades is distinctly placed “ὑπὸ κεύθεσι γαίης” in Il.22. 482; Od.24. 204; and the soul of Patroclus when it leaves the body “κατὰ χθονὸς ἠύτε καπνὸς”

“ᾤχετο τετριγυῖα”. But the voyage that Odysseus makes at the bidding of Circe puts a very different picture before us. He steers a southwest course from Circe's isle (10. 507), crosses the ocean-stream, to the shore where stand the groves of Persephone, and moves along some way till he comes to the place Circe had told him of (11, ad init.). Here we have no account of any descent into subterranean gloom, but a description of the people and city of the Cimmerians, who seem to have lived, as one might say, beyond the west, as the fabled Hyperboreans beyond the north. The word Cimmerians is intended to be suggestive; and some have found an etymology for it in “χειμέριος”, others, as Voss, in the Phoenician kamar or kimmer. As in the case of the Laestrygones, we may suppose that in the endless night that lies upon the Cimmerians, uncheered by a single ray of sunlight, we have an allusion to the gloomy winter months of northern latitudes; the scene being again transferred from north to west. Here Odysseus digs his pit and waits for the souls of the dead to come up and taste the blood. But he is still on the earth's surface. He has indeed come ὑπὸ ζόφον ἠερόεντα, but there is not a word of his descent into the “κεύθεα γαίης” like that of Heracles, or Orpheus, or Peirithous. There are, no doubt, inconsistencies in b. 11, which make it seem occasionally as if the whole of the nether world was visible to Odysseus' eyes; yet he never steps upon the meadow of asphodel, never comes into the presence of Persephone; but he takes his departure somewhat suddenly at last, in fear that she might send up some ghastly spectre from beneath, to petrify him with horror.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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