i
- The Underworld here is mapped on familiar territory, up through the land where the Plunketts live, past the sulfur mines of Bennett and Ward.
- They appear to be moving along the volcano, and it seems we are about to experience hell, Dante's Inferno-style.
- To be fair, it's a mini version of Dante's nine levels. The first level of torment is called the Pool of Speculation, and here, elected officials who sold out the island to land developers and casino and hotel builders languish. They're basically boiling in lava while the Greek Hephaestus and Yoruba Ogun guard them.
- They try to pull the narrator in with them as he passes. Um… thanks but no thanks, guys.
- The narrator references particular sins in the destruction of the island in this passage, and he follows the footsteps of his guide Seven Seas/Omeros around the dangers of this hell for traitors to their own people.
ii
- Seven Seas tells the narrator that traveling doesn't teach anything new because it's all a fiction—the wanderer sends his narrator on those travels.
- And there's more: The hero is a trickster, because there are really two timelines, the hero's and the writer's.
- The better journey, says Seven Seas/Omeros, is the one that stays put and allows the sea to move the love for his island around his heart and inspire him to write of it.
- The next sight is a surprise: Hector is in hell. Say it ain't so, right?
- He is decked out as a road-warrior, and he's suffering there for a while because of his religious beliefs (i.e., Christianity), which sold him and his people into spiritual bondage.
- Finally, the narrator sees Ward and Bennett (the proprietors of the sulfur mine) doing time in hell in return for their exploitation of the island.
iii
- The narrator follows Seven Seas/Omeros. He is having a crisis of faith, though, which makes things harder for his guide.
- They come next to a pit where the poets suffer. We might call them the "false poets" who write selfishly, wallowing in pride over their language—now, however, they wallow in poo.
- The narrator begins to fall into the pit with these folks, having exulted in his craft, but Omeros saves him.
- A soul reaches up to beg for another chance to live and write, but Seven Seas/Omeros rebukes him and tells the soul to ask itself whether it ever used its "other eyes" to truly see.
- The narrator moves away from the scene and then awakens to blackbirds singing.