The Odyssey Book 11 Summary

Odysseus travels to the Underworld and makes the offerings according to Circe’s instructions. The shades of the dead (shades = ghosts) gather to drink of the spilt blood and then talk to Odysseus.
The first shade is Elpenor, freshly fallen from Circe’s roof. Odysseus’s eyes bug out when he sees one of his crew members – he weeps and listens to the man’s story.
Elpenor begs for Odysseus to honor his death by building a burial mound (essentially a pile of rocks) for his dead body. Odysseus agrees. It’s the least he can do.
Odysseus then glimpses his mother’s shade among the rest of the dead. This is news to him, since last he heard she was still alive. Not a good way to find out.
Fortunately, he is soon distracted from his weeping by the arrival of Teiresias (the dead blind prophet).
Teiresias drinks the blood of Odysseus’s sacrifice so he can speak with the man.
He then warns the man of things to come; he says not to eat Helios’s cattle at Thrinakia, and then casually announces that Odysseus will survive alone (in other words, all of his companions will die).
The good news is, Odysseus will make it home after all. And there he will find…trouble. He will have to make the suitors pay for their insolence with blood (a popular currency around these parts).
After defeating the suitors, Teiresias continues, Odysseus must go inland until he reaches an area of earth which has never known the sea. There he must pray to Poseidon in order to ensure himself a peaceful seaborne death in his old age, surrounded by all his folk.
After hearing all this advice, Odysseus asks Teiresias why his mother is here and if he can talk to her.
Teiresias says sure, as long as she drinks the blood of the sacrifice, too.
One gory mess later, Odysseus’s mother Antikleia tells him of the situation back home in Ithaka, detailing Telemachos’s growth but helplessness against the suitors, Penelope’s loyalty and long suffering, and her own death out of loneliness for Odysseus.
Her son tries three times to embrace her, but Antikleia is dead, so this isn’t really possible.
When she leaves, there’s a long line of other dead people waiting to talk to him. The shades don’t get too many visitors around these parts.
Odysseus draws his sword to hold them back. (Except they’re already dead, so we’re not sure how effective that would be.) He lets them come and drink one at a time.
Odysseus speaks first to a long line of princesses: Tyro, Antiope, Alkmene, Megara, Epikaste, Chloris, Leda, Iphimedeia, Phaidra, Prokris, Ariadne, Maira, Klymene, and Eriphyle.
At this point, Odysseus pauses in his narrative. The Phaiakians are all "No way!"
Queen Arete, clearly impressed by all these stories, decides that when they do finally send Odysseus on his way, it should be with lots of sparkly things (i.e., treasure).
King Alkinoös is all, "Wait a minute, I’m the King around here," but he agrees about the sparkly things.
He then asks Odysseus if, while he was down in the underworld, he met any of his friends who died at Troy.
So Odysseus resumes his story.
Back in the Underworld, Odysseus sees Agamemnon and hears the tragic story of his murder and his son Orestes’s revenge against Aigisthos and Klytaimestra.
Agamemnon is understandably bitter against women and considers all of them treacherous. Oh, except for Penelope, whom he praises for her loyalty. (Nice save.)
Then appear the spirits of Achilleus, Patroklos, Antilochos, and Telamonian Aias, some of Odysseus’s buddies from the Trojan war.
Odysseus praises Achilleus for having earned so much honor and glory in his life; surely his death was like, the greatest death ever.
Achilleus doesn’t agree. Actually, he says, being dead sucks. He’d rather be a poor country farmer who is alive than a glorious lord in the Underworld. Wise words.
He then asks Odysseus about his son, Neoptolemos; Odysseus responds with what he knows of the lad’s brilliance and luck in battle.
Then Odysseus pleads with Telamonian Aias to forget their earlier quarrel in Troy over Achilleus’s arms.
[Mythological Context Lesson: You’ve already heard about little Aias, so here’s the deal with big or “Telamnonian” Aias (he’s called that because he’s big and his dad’s name was Telamon). Back at Troy, Odysseus and big Aias competed for the arms of Achilleus, who had been killed and therefore didn’t need his weapons anymore. The arms were to go to the bravest man, but the Greeks couldn’t bring themselves to make a decision since they figured whoever lost would leave the war in a huff. They couldn’t really afford to anger and lose either of these great heroes, so they let the Trojan captives decide. The Trojans picked Odysseus, and the enraged Aias killed himself.]
Clearly still peeved, the ghostly Aias turns away from Odysseus. Ouch. Rejected.
Before he goes, Odysseus also sees Minos, Orion, Tityos, Tantalos, Sisyphos, and Herakles. These are all figures of Greek myth and, if you’re interested in the specifics, check out your text.
When all the shades come crowding in to drink the blood, Odysseus freaks out and runs back to his ship.
Everyone leaves the Underworld, a little bit wiser and less a few sacrificial animals.

Book 12

Book 10