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Odysseus's Journey Into The Underworld

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Modern culture borrows a lot from ancient Greek culture, especially when it comes down to the Underworld. In many modern films and books the heroes have to communicate with the dead in order to advance in their mission, much like Odysseus’s journey into the underworld. Odysseus’s trip to the underworld his Katabasis, begins when he is instructed by Circe to talk to Tiresias in the underworld. “Well, Circe sets us a rather different course… down to the House of Death and the awesome one Persephone, there to consult the ghost of Tiresias, seer of Thebes” (Od. X. 620-622). Tiresias has information that he can give Odysseus on how to get home. He will also tell Odysseus of the stages he will have to go through before reaching home, and what he must do after his journey. But before Odysseus can talk to the dead he has to perform the ritual that Circe gave him.
“I, drawing my sharp sword from beside my hip, dug a trench of about a forearm’s depth and length and around it poured libations out to all the dead, first with milk and honey, and then with mellow wine, then water third and last,…and once my vows and prayers had invoked the nations of the dead I took the victims, over the trench …show more content…

According to Edith Hall, “People who like drinking blood, or try to contact the dead, find their earliest surviving instruction manual in Book XI of the Odyssey…”(Hall, 215). Hall is giving examples of the Odysseys influence on modern day culture. The idea of drinking blood can be found in every vampire story. Vampires are seen as undead, so it would make sense for them to require blood to be able to function, just like the ghosts require blood to speak. This ritual that Odysseus preformed has made an influence on our modern view of the undead, and how they are forever in search of living things to consume. The Odyssey has given the blood thirsty trait to our modern day versions of

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