THE HADES OF VIRGIL. 653 



judgment {(ppiver;) were entire or steadfast, still, while recognizing 

 Ulysses, he asked to be allowed to drink the blood, that he might 

 tell what is unerring {-/.ai rot vrjp.£pria dizuj). It plainly appears that 

 it was because his body had not then been interred that Elpenor was 

 able to converse with Ulysses. The opinion was evidently held by 

 Homer and Virgil that, until the body was buried, the soul could 

 not rest in peace. Though Ulysses easily recognized his mother 

 Anticlea, he could not obtain any recognition from her. He, conse- 

 quently, thus addressed Tiresias : "I behold this, the soul of my 

 deceased mother. She sits near the blood in silence ; neither does 

 she dare to look openly at her son, nor to speak to him." Tiresias 

 replied : " Whomsoever of the dead thou sufferest to come near the 

 blood, he will tell thee the truth ; but to whomsoever thou grudgest 

 it, he will go back again." When Anticlea drank of the blood in 

 the trench, she entered into conversation with her son. It was in 

 reference to her that Ulysses u.sed the affecting words which Virgil 

 translated with very great faithfulness : 



" TpiQ fiev s^wpfirjOriv kXkeiv rk fie Ovubg ai'wyei, 

 Tpig Sk fioi 6/c x^'-9<^'>^ <''K'^ eiKtXov i] kol ovilpij) 



iTCTaT." 



*' Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum ; 

 Ter frustra comprensa maiius eflfugit imago, 

 !Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno." 



It does not appear that Ulysses conversed with any of the dead 

 until they had first drunk of the blood. An exception has to be 

 made in the case of Hercules. With regard to him, however, it is 

 said that it was an image (er'cJcoAov) of him that was in Hades. Homer 

 distinctly states that the souls of the dead came to Ulysses after he 

 had prepared the trench. No mention whatever is made of any 

 divisions of Hades. It is said that Ulysses beheld Minos, Orion, 

 Tityus, Tantalus and Sisyphus. Inasmuch as the poet distinctly 

 states that Tityus, Tantalus and Sisyphus were suffering punishment 

 which must have confined them to a definite locality, it must be 

 admitted that Ulysses changed his position. Hence it has been 

 sought, with the aim of preserving the poet's consistency, to regard 

 as spurious that portion of the narrative which details the names and 

 fortunes of the heroes in question. 



If we now turn to ^neas, we shall find an entix'ely different state 

 of things. The conception which Virgil had of Hades was alto- 



