Argos by Ralph Hardy Page A

came to speakwith the soul of Teiresias. It was a duty I had to obey, even though I have not been to Ithaka in many years. Indeed, I have been wandering since the days I helped defeat the Trojans alongside the great Agamemnon.’
    â€œâ€˜I know of your battle with the Trojans, my son. Many great warriors are here because of it,’ she replied.
    â€œFor a moment they were silent while Odysseus contemplated what he had done. But then he looked to his mother and said, ‘Now that I have answered, I have many questions for you, for I have not set foot on Achaian land for many years. Tell me, how did you die, swiftly or with a long sickness? And what of my father and the son I left behind? Do they know I still live? And tell me about Penelope, my loyal wife. Does she need anything? Does she believe I live?’
    â€œSo your master spoke, and his mother answered quickly, ‘Your wife endures many hardships and spends her nights weeping by the sea. Telemachos administers your lands as well as he can, but he is still just a boy, though he grows strong, and he has a faithful companion, a fierce and loyal dog. Your father lives on, but he is poor, for he cares not for anything but your safe return and he grows old harshly. As for me, I died not quickly nor from illness, but rather the sweet spirit of life left me over my longing for you, your cleverness and gentle ways.’
    â€œHearing this tale of woe, your master sought to embrace his mother, but three times she fluttered away as his arms encircled her, like a dream or a shadow. Then your master cried, ‘Mother, will you not wait for me? My arms long to touch you! Even though we are in Hades, is there not relief from this dismal mourning? Or are you nothing but a ghost that Queen Persephone has sent my way to make me grieve even more?’
    â€œOdysseus’s mother answered thus: ‘O my ill-fated child, this is what happens when we die. The sinews do not hold us together once the spirit has left its cage of white bones. The soul flitters like a moth and flies away. That is why you must leave. Go back to the land of light as fast as you can, back to your good wife Penelope, but remember what you have seen here.’
    â€œBut while she said this, other souls gathered round, the souls of wives and daughters of gods and princes, all sent by Persephone, and each one spoke of the sorrows of the perished. Then the soul of great Achilles, noblest of the Achaians, approached, and soon Minos, too, came forward, glorious son of Zeus, and the giant Orion too. Beyond them struggled Sisyphos, trying to push the great stone up the mountain, and when he had nearly reached the summit, the pitiless boulderrolled back down to the plain. Your master watched him try and fail again. He would never gain the summit; that was his fate.
    â€œMore of the perished gathered about Odysseus, clamoring to hear news of the living, but their noise was too great, and your master, fearing that Persephone might send some monster of the underworld after him, left that place as fast as he could and boarded his ship. Apollo’s chariot could be seen in the east, so I did not fly to his ship, though I heard him cry, ‘Cast off the cables and set your oarlocks!’
    â€œThat was the last I saw of them, loyal one,” the bat says. “I do not fly by day, and so I did not follow their swift boat on its way back to Aiaia. I found a dark cavern in which to hide until the next night, and then I flew toward this land.”
    For a long time I cannot speak. Finally I say, “How can I thank you, winged one, for your endeavors?”
    â€œThere is nothing you can do for me, Boar Slayer. We bats are not like other creatures fashioned by the gods. We fly, yet we are not birds. We eat insects, yet we are not reptiles. We are blind, yet we see all. That is our fate. Go now, back to your home and sleep. Your master sails ever closer, though as long as he sails over water,