Teiresias Speaks of Return and Reckoning (Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11 – Part 4)

Anon came the soul of Theban Tiresias, with a golden sceptre in his hand, and he knew me and spake unto me: 'Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, what seekest thou now, wretched man? Wherefore hast thou left the sunlight and come hither to behold the dead and the land desolate of joy? Nay, hold off from the ditch and draw back thy sharp sword, that I may drink of the blood and tell thee sooth.' So spake he, and I put up my silver-studded sword into the sheath.

And when he had drunk the dark blood, even then did the noble seer speak unto me, saying: 'Thou art asking of thy sweet returning, great Odysseus.

But that will the god make hard for thee; for methinks thou shalt not pass unheeded by the Shaker of the Earth, who hath laid up wrath in his heart against thee, for rage at the blinding of his dear son.

Yet even so, through many troubles, ye may come home, if thou wilt restrain thy spirit and the spirit of thy men so soon as thou shalt bring thy well-wrought ship nigh to the isle Thrinacia, fleeing the sea of violet blue, when ye find the herds of Helios grazing and his brave flocks, of Helios who overseeth all and overheareth all things.

If thou dost thee no hurt, being heedful of thy return, so may ye yet reach Ithaca, albeit in evil case.

But if thou hurtest them, I foreshow ruin of thy ship and for thy men; and even though thou shalt thyself escape, late shalt thou return in evil plight, with the loss of all thy company, on board the ship of strangers; and thou shalt find sorrows in thy house, even proud men that devour thy living, while they woo thy godlike wife and offer the gifts of wooing.

Yet I tell thee, on thy coming thou shalt avenge their violence.

But when thou hast slain the wooers in thy halls, whether by guile or openly with the edge of the sword, thereafter go thy way, taking with thee a shapen oar, till thou shalt come to such men as know not the sea, neither eat meat savoured with salt; yea, nor they have knowledge of ships of purple cheek, nor shapen oars which serve for wings to ships.

And I will give thee a most manifest token, which cannot escape thee.

In the day when another wayfarer shall meet thee and say that thou hast a winnowing fan on thy stout shoulder, even then make fast thy shapen oar in the earth and do goodly sacrifice to lord Poseidon, even with a ram and a bull and a boar, the mate of swine, and depart for home and offer holy hecatombs to the deathless gods that keep the wide heaven, to each in order due.

And from the sea shall thine own death come, the gentlest death that may be, which shall end thee foredone with smooth old age; and the folk shall dwell happily around thee.