n considerable detail, which story has been given twice already
in the poem. A most impressive event to the Greek mind of Homer's age;
the greatest of the rulers is wretchedly cut off from his Return by his
wife Clytaemnestra and her paramour AEgisthus. This Return is what points
the contrast between him and Ulysses; moreover the contrast is also
drawn between the wives of the two men, one the faithless and the other
the faithful woman. Still the wrong of Agamemnon is suggested by
himself: "I heard the piteous voice of Cassandra, whom Clytaemnestra
slew, crying for me; I, though dying, grasped for my sword," to no
purpose, however. Surely the wife had her wrongs as well as the
husband, out of which double guilt AEschylus will construct his mighty
tragedy.

Next after the Leader, in due order comes the Hero of the Greeks before
Troy, Achilles. He recognizes this descent to Hades as the greatest
deed of Ulysses: "What greater deed, rash man, wilt thou plan next?" It
is verily the most wonderful part of his Return, overtopping anything
that Achilles did. Still Ulysses pays him the meed of heroship: "We
Argives honored thee as a God, while living, and now thou art powerful
among the dead; therefore do not sorrow at thy death, O Achilles." But
he answers that he would rather be the humblest day laborer to a poor
man than to be King of the Shades. It is not his world, he longs for
the realm of heroic action, here he has no vocation. No Troy to be
taken, no Hector to be vanquished down in Hades; the heroic man must
sigh for the Upper World with its activity. Some consolation he gets
from the account which Ulysses gives of his son, who was in the Wooden
Horse and distinguished himself at Troy for bravery. Thus the father
lives in his son and "strides off delighted through the meadow of
asphodel." This plant is usually regarded as the _Asphodelus ramosus_,
a kind of lily with an edible tuberous root, still planted, it is said,
on graves, to furnish to the dead some food which grows in the earth.
This ancient custom has been supposed to be the source of the legend of
its being transplanted to Hades.

The third heroic shade is that of Ajax, son of Telamon, with whom
Ulysses had a rivalry, the story of which runs as follows: After the
death of Achilles, Thetis his mother offered his arms, the work of
Vulcan, to the worthiest of the remaining Greek heroes. The contest lay
between Ajax and Ulysses. Agamemnon would not decide, but re