Canto I Perseverance Quotes

When Odysseus goes into the underworld, he's totally confronted by a whole bunch of dead folks. So does the guy turn around and run? No way, he pulls out his sword to keep the dead people away, though it's not quite clear how he plans to hurt dead people with his sword. In any case, this scene helps go to show that you can't keep this dude down.

Now here's a real kick in the rear. Odysseus chats with Tiresias because he wants to know how things are going to shake down for him and his friends in the future. Tiresias tells him that he's actually going to have a really rough journey and that he's going to lose every friend he has. This is a fact, by the way, since the Greeks believed a lot in faith. Odysseus, though, still keeps pushing onward.

So yeah, Pound closes this chapter in Odysseus' journey by talking about how the guy kept sailing despite all the insane monsters and dangers he ran into along the way. He even sailed back to the home of Circe—the sorceress who almost killed him and all of his friends the last time he ran into her. But Odysseus feels like he needs to bury his friend Elpenor, so he faces the hardship head-on and pushes onward.