Week 2 Storytelling: The Spirit of Anticleia

Teiresias prophesying Odysseus's journey home. 

Artist: Johann Heinrich Fussli. Source: Wikipedia.

Odysseus, once daunted by the idea of going into the underworld, felt a little more at ease once he had spoken to Teiresias and heard the prophecy of safety in his journey back to Ithaca. He stayed at the entrance to Hades until the ghost of his mother met him.

She drank of the blood that Odysseus offered in order to communicate with the spirits, and immediately recognized him. Weeping, she asked him how he managed to get to the underworld alive. "Have you not seen your wife and son yet?" she asked dolefully.

Odysseus responded with his tale of his adventures since the Trojan War. "The witch Circe told me to seek Teiresias's prophecy," he explained. "After this, I can finally stop roaming and settle back in at home."

Then, a painful sadness overtook him. "Why are you here, mother? What took your life? And what about the family that I left when I went to war?"

Anticleia assuaged her son's fears, saying, "Your wife still lives in your palace, but it has been overrun by suitors asking for her hand in marriage. Despite this, she has remained faithful to you throughout the years you have been gone. Your son, Telemachus, has become a man and presides over the land. They are facing hardship and temptation each day, but they get by. However, your father is lonely in the countryside, weak with age. For years he has been grieving and awaiting your return. Please visit him on your journey back so that he does not meet the same fate as I. It was not disease or weapons that took my life, but a broken heart, waiting all those years for your sweet spirit.

At this, Odysseus was overcome by heartache. He wished he could hold her and bring her comfort. Three times he tried to hug his mother, but with each attempt, her spirit escaped his embrace. This saddened him even further, and he asked, "Why can I not hold you? Are you just a trick of the light or an apparition sent by Hades to torment me more?"

The wise woman answered, "This is just the way of the world of the dead. Spirits are not substantial any longer; we don't have the forms we once did. But do not worry about that, child: take the information and advice that I have given you and bring it back to the world. Say hello to your father, and when you reach Ithaca, bring the good news of your return to your wife and son."

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Author's note: As I was reading the Odyssey, this passage was both difficult and fascinating to read. Of course, it was heartbreaking to see the grief of Odysseus and his mother, but there was something sweet among the sadness of this excerpt. Inexplicably, this was my favorite part of the reading unit.

In this storytelling exercise, I stuck very closely to the original translation by Tony Kline, as I wanted to keep the reverence and loving tone in the interaction between Odysseus and Anticleia. I loved this section of the text because it was a change of pace from the violence that Odysseus faced with Polyphemus the Cyclops and the temptation that he received at the hands of Circe the witch. It is an interesting juxtaposition of emotional affection, inserted between accounts of battles with monsters that incorporate only brute force.

Bibliography:

Homer's Odyssey, as found in the Un-Textbook.

(Original: The Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline, 2004)