Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/260

252 Shall taste the blood, that shade will tell thee truth; The rest, prohibited, will all retire. When thus the spirit of the royal Seer Had his prophetic mind reveal'd, again He enter'd Pluto's gates; but I unmoved Still waited till my mother's shade approach'd; She drank the blood, then knew me, and in words Wing'd with affection, plaintive, thus began. My son! how hast thou enter'd, still alive, This darksome region? Difficult it is For living man to view the realms of death. Broad rivers roll, and awful floods between, But chief, the Ocean, which to pass on foot, Or without ship, impossible is found. Hast thou, long wand'ring in thy voyage home From Ilium, with thy ship and crew arrived, Ithaca and thy consort yet unseen? She spake, to whom this answer I return'd. My mother! me necessity constrain'd To Pluto's dwelling, anxious to consult Theban Tiresias; for I have not yet Approach'd Achaia, nor have touch'd the shore Of Ithaca, but suff'ring ceaseless woe Have roam'd, since first in Agamemnon's train I went to combat with the sons of Troy. But speak, my mother, and the truth alone; What stroke of fate slew thee? Fell'st thou a prey To some slow malady? or by the shafts