THE HADES OF VIRGIL. 649 



the yoiitli, the stoutest hearts." He receives this additional coiHt 

 mand from the/orm of Ancliises : 



" Ditis tamen ante 

 Infernas accede domos, et Avema per alta 

 Congressus pete, nate, meos : non me impia namque 

 Tartara liabent : tristesve umbrje, sed amcena piorum 

 Concilia Elysiumqne colo : Hue casta Sibylla 

 Nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet. 

 Turn genus omne tuum, et quse dentur mcenia, disces." 



^neas accordingly descended to Hades that he might consult the 

 fortn of his father in Elysium ; that he might ascertain what the 

 future had in store for him, and that he might learn to what glory 

 and greatness his descendants were to come, and with what success 

 they were to be favoured. 



2. As to the course which Ulysses and ^neas were to adopt, in 

 order to come to Hades, it has to be remarked concerning the former, 

 that perplexed, in consequence of the communication which Circe 

 made to him, he asks the question : " Who will conduct me on this 

 voyage % No one has yet come to Hades in a black ship." He is 

 informed that he is to have no guide, but that he is to erect his mast 

 and to spread his white sails, and " to let the blast of the north wind 

 {Tzvda] Bopiao) carry him." " He reached the extreme boundaries of 

 the deep-flowing ocean, where are the people and the city of the Cim- 

 merians." It is impossible to ascertain with accuracy where the 

 island of -^sea, the home of Circe, was situated. It seems to be 

 necessary to suppose that it was in the neighbourhood of Sicily, in 

 order that anything like coherence may be observed in the topo- 

 graphy of the Odyssey. The opinion of Gladstone cannot be correct 

 when he aflirms, in an article in the Contemjjorary Review, June, 

 1874, that "the dwelling of Kirk^ and the avxoXai^EzXioio are evi- 

 dently in the Euxine." The ship of Ulysses must have sailed in a 

 southerly direction, seeing that the blast of the north wind bore it 

 along. A large portion of a day was consumed in reaching the 

 extreme boundaries of the ocean. 



According to Homer, the ocean is a vast river, flowing entirely 

 round the earth, and the source of all other streams. In Iliad XXI 

 these words occur : " Nor the mighty strength of deep-flowing ocean, 

 from which flow all rivers, and every sea, and all fountains and deep 

 wells." In Iliad XYIII. and Odyssey XX., the epithet acpoppoo:;, 



