On hearing that his son Neoptolemus had won great glory in the capture
of Troy, the spirit left him, exulting with joy that his son was
worthy of him. Ajax turned from Odysseus in anger at the loss of
Achilles' armour for the possession of which they had striven. The
last figure that came was the ghost of Heracles, though the hero
himself was with the gods in Olympus.

"Round him was the whirr of the dead as of birds fleeing in panic.
Like to black night, with his bow ready and an arrow on the string,
he glared about him terribly, as ever intending to shoot. Over his
breast was flung a fearful belt, whereon were graven bears and lions
and fights, battles, murders and man-slayings."

He recognised Odysseus before he passed back to death; when a crowd of
terrifying apparitions came thronging to the trench, Odysseus fled to
his ship lest the Gorgon might be sent from the awful Queen of the
dead.

Returning to Circe, he learned from her of the remaining dangers. The
first of these was the island of the Sirens, who by the marvellous
sweetness of their song charmed to their ruin all who passed. Odysseus
filled the ears of his crews with wax, bidding them to tie him to the
mast of his ship and to row hard past the temptresses in spite of his
strugglings. They then entered the dangerous strait, on one side of
which was Scylla, a dreadful monster who lived in a cave near by, on
the other was the deadly whirlpool of Charybdis. Scylla carried off
six of his men who called in vain to Odysseus to save them, stretching
out their hands to him in their last agony. From the strait they
passed to the island of Trinacria, where they found grazing the cattle
of the Sun. Odysseus had learned from both Teiresias and Circe that an