’And after him I marked the mighty Orion driving the wild beasts together over the mead of asphodel, the very beasts that himself had slain on the lonely hills, with a strong mace all of bronze in his hands, {*} that is ever unbroken.

{* [Greek] in strict grammar agrees with [Greek] in 574, but this merely by attraction, for in sense it refers not to the living man, but to his phantom.}

’And I saw Tityos, son of renowned Earth, lying on a levelled ground, and he covered nine roods as he lay, and vultures twain beset him one on either side, and gnawed at his liver, piercing even to the caul, but he drave them not away with his hands.  For he had dealt violently with Leto, the famous bedfellow of Zeus, as she went up to Pytho through the fair lawns of Panopeus.

’Moreover I beheld Tantalus in grievous torment, standing in a mere and the water came nigh unto his chin.  And he stood straining as one athirst, but he might not attain to the water to drink of it.  For often as that old man stooped down in his eagerness to drink, so often the water was swallowed up and it vanished away, and the black earth still showed at his feet, for some god parched it evermore.  And tall trees flowering shed their fruit overhead, pears and pomegranates and apple trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs and olives in their bloom, whereat when that old man reached out his hands to clutch them, the wind would toss them to the shadowy clouds.

’Yea and I beheld Sisyphus in strong torment, grasping a monstrous stone with both his hands.  He was pressing thereat with hands and feet, and trying to roll the stone upward toward the brow of the hill.  But oft as he was about to hurl it over the top, the weight would drive him back, so once again to the plain rolled the stone, the shameless thing.  And he once more kept heaving and straining, and the sweat the while was pouring down his limbs, and the dust rose upwards from his head.

’And after him I descried the mighty Heracles, his phantom, I say; but as for himself he hath joy at the banquet among the deathless gods, and hath to wife Hebe of the fair ankles, child of great Zeus, and of Here of the golden sandals.  And all about him there was a clamour of the dead, as it were fowls flying every way in fear, and he like black Night, with bow uncased, and shaft upon the string, fiercely glancing around, like one in the act to shoot.  And about his breast was an awful belt, a baldric of gold, whereon wondrous things were wrought, bears and wild boars and lions with flashing eyes, and strife and battles and slaughters and murders of men.  Nay, now that he hath fashioned this, never another may he fashion, whoso stored in his craft the device of that belt!  And anon he knew me when his eyes beheld me, and making lament he spake unto me winged words: 

’"Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices:  ah! wretched one, dost thou too lead such a life of evil doom, as I endured beneath the rays of the sun?  I was the son of Zeus Cronion, yet had I trouble beyond measure, for I was subdued unto a man far worse than I. And he enjoined on me hard adventures, yea and on a time he sent me hither to bring back the hound of hell; for he devised no harder task for me than this.  I lifted the hound and brought him forth from out of the house of Hades; and Hermes sped me on my way and the grey-eyed Athene.”