low the development of Ulysses, (which is indispensable)
he must return with the latter to Calypso's Island and trace him
through his three grand experiences--Oyggia, Phaeacia, and Fableland.
But if the reader wishes to continue in the action of the poem, he must
now pass out of Fableland to Ithaca in the company of the Hero. (For
this double movement of the Ulyssiad, see pp. 121-8.)

But before Fableland is left behind, its full sweep may be called up
once more: from the Upperworld of Earth (Ninth and Tenth Books, both
belong together in a general survey), which shows the negation of Greek
ethical life and its conflicts, we pass to the Underworld of Hades,
which on the one hand is the negation of all Greek sensible existence,
and on the other hand is the revelation of the supersensible (soul,
idea, world-justice); thence we come back to the Upperworld in which
the idea, obtained beyond, is seen struggling with the reality in
various negative phases--Ulysses, knowing in advance, is shown in his
attempt to realize his knowledge in the deed. Such then, is this grand
threefold sweep of Fableland.

One more retrospect: let us glance back at the whole Twelve Books, this
first half of the Odyssey, composed of the Telemachiad and the
Ulyssiad. Both are parts of one whole; father and son acquire each his
special discipline for the coming deed. Both are brought to a
recognition of the Divine Order, the son mainly through tradition, the
father mainly through experience. Both reach beyond the sensible into
the supersensible or ideal realm; Telemachus hears the story of
Proteus, which teaches the essence in all appearance; Ulysses descends
to Hades and there communes with pure mind without its terrestrial
incumbrance, in the case of Tiresias and others. Such is the internal
preparation; now they are to do the deed. The idea they possess, the
next is to make it real.

Accordingly the action of the poem, with Ulysses as its center, moves
next to Ithaca, the realm in which the idea is to be realized:
wherewith we enter upon a new grand division of the poem.

(The reader who wishes to study the parallelism between this Twelfth
Book and Prospero can consult the author's Commentary on Shakespeare,
where it treats of the _Tempest_. In fact, the entire play, which is
also a kind of Fairy Tale, has many correspondences with Homer's
Fableland.)

_ITHAKEIAD._

Such is the designation which we have concluded to give to the last