feel in themselves the possibility of
such conflicts. These ideal shapes of the olden time, product of
the myth-making Imagination, are types, are the ghosts of Hades
which Ulysses must see and know, ere he return to the Upperworld.

II.

We now reach the second main division of the Book, which is marked by
the introduction of the audience, the Phaeacians, "who were held rapt
with the charm" of the story. Observe, too, that the palace was not
brilliantly illuminated, but shadowy--fit environment for fairy tales
(line 334). This main division is again separated into two subordinate
divisions which embrace the Present and the Past, and thus is in
structure homologous with the preceding main division. Yet both the
Present and the Past are not now the same as the previous Present and
Past.

I. First of the hearers speaks out the mother, wife of Alcinous, Arete,
in response to the compliment of Ulysses in singing of the Famous Women
of Greek legend. "Phaeacians, how does this man seem to you now in form,
stature, and mind?" Very different does he seem from what he once did;
thus she gently apologizes for her previous treatment. She appreciates
the Hero; moreover, she asks that the high guest receive hospitable
gifts without stint; "for much wealth lies in your halls by the bounty
of the Gods."

Having thus heard from the woman, we now are to hear from the man, the
representative Phaeacian, king Alcinous. In the first portion of the
Book Ulysses and his companions were the Present to which the Past
appeared in Hades. Now the Phaeacians are introduced as the Present,
which is to hear the voice of the Past from Hades. Moreover, the Past
is not the Pre-Trojan, but the Trojan Past, which we have already (in
the Eighth Book) seen to be dear to the Phaeacian heart. It is no
wonder, then, that Alcinous, as soon as he can urge his request, calls
for a song about the Greco-Trojan Heroes in the Underworld. "Tell us if
thou didst see any of those godlike Argives who followed thee to Troy
and there met their fate." Not the mother of the Hero, but the Hero
himself is now to be called up; the man wishes to listen to the deeds
of man. Demodocus, the Phaeacian bard, always sung of some phase of the
Trojan struggle, which was the popular subject of story and song in
Phaeacia. Thus we note again how the famous Past, stored away in Hades,
is made to flow into the Present, and to contribute an ideal of
heroism, and a warning a