ange them into wolves and lions. Ulysses
drew his sword to cut off the head of Eurylochus for his cowardice, but
the others prayed that he might be left alone to guard the ship. So
Ulysses left him; but Eurylochus had not the courage to be alone, and
slunk behind them to the house of Circe. There she welcomed them all,
and gave them a feast, and there they dwelt for a whole year, and then
they wearied for their wives and children, and longed to return to
Ithaca. They did not guess by what a strange path they must sail.

When Ulysses was alone with Circe at night he told her that his men were
home-sick, and would fain go to Ithaca. Then Circe said, 'There is no
way but this: you must sail to the last shore of the stream of the river
Oceanus, that girdles round the world. There is the Land of the Dead,
and the House of Hades and Persephone, the King and Queen of the ghosts.
There you must call up the ghost of the blind prophet, Tiresias of
Thebes, for he alone has knowledge of your way, and the other spirits
sweep round shadow-like.'

Then Ulysses thought that his heart would break, for how should he, a
living man, go down to the awful dwellings of the dead? But Circe told
him the strange things that he must do, and she gave him a black ram and
a black ewe, and next day Ulysses called his men together. All followed
him to the ship, except one, Elpenor. He had been sleeping, for the sake
of the cool air, on the flat roof of the house, and, when suddenly
wakened, he missed his foothold on the tall ladder, and fell to the
ground and broke his neck. They left him unburned and unburied, and,
weeping, they followed Ulysses, as follow they must, to see the homes of
the ghosts and the house of Hades. Very sorrowfully they all went on
board, taking with them the black ram and the black ewe, and they set
the sails, and the wind bore them at its will.

Now in mid-day they sailed out of the sunlight into darkness, for they
had come to the land of the Cimmerian men, which the sun never sees, but
all is dark cloud and mist. There they ran the ship ashore, and took out
the two black sheep, and walked along the dark banks of the river
Oceanus to a place of which Circe had told Ulysses. There the two rivers
of the dead meet, where a rock divides the two dark roaring streams.
There they dug a trench and poured out mead, and wine, and water, and
prayed to the ghosts, and then they cut the throat of the black ewe, and
the grey ghosts gathe