follow
there too. Not to keep down passion and appetite is clearly to eat of
those oxen in some way, which will be more carefully scrutinized
hereafter. Then, thirdly, "thou shalt avenge the violent deeds of the
Suitors, when thou hast returned home."

The common ground in these three cases of prophetic insight is
retribution for the act done there above on earth. The penalty is as
certain in the future as it has been in the past; violation brings
punishment. Ulysses has had that experience often; note it is told him,
or, if you wish to think the matter in that way, he tells it to himself
for his own future experience. So the Prophet sees the universal law,
he knows what abides in all the fleeting appearances of the world.
Ulysses also, were he to descend into the depths of his own soul, would
find the same prophecy; indeed this descent into Hades is also the
descent into himself, as well as into the outer supersensible world.
The hero in his intellectual journey has gone far, we can now behold
him near the eternal verities.

But the fourth statement of the Prophet is here too, it is the word of
promise. When this last conflict with the Suitors is over, then be
reconciled with Neptune by a fitting sacrifice (which means that
Ulysses should quit the watery element) give hecatombs to the
Immortals, recognize them and their rule. Then serene old age will take
thee off remote from the sea and all struggle, among a happy people,
whom thou hast made happy. Such is the promise, extending quite beyond
the limits of the Odyssey, which ends not at the death of Ulysses, but
with his last conflict. So there is hope amid all this struggle, hope
of becoming the complete man, who has reached harmony with the Gods,
with his people, and with himself.

In such fashion Tiresias calls into vision the course of the entire
poem, and reaches even beyond it, embracing the whole life of Ulysses,
till he too descends for the last time into Hades. Verily the prophet
is Past, Present and Future; his true abode is in the realm of pure
spirit. He foretells, but the Future is prefigured as the outcome of
what is universal; it must be so and not otherwise, else is the world a
chaos. Thus Tiresias is put at the beginning, he being the typical
person of this Underworld, in which the deities, Pluto and Proserpine,
do not appear, being held in the dark background. The prophet telling
his prophecy is the very Figure of the Supersensible.

But again le