‘Son of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, no longer now remain unwilling in my house. But first you must complete another journey and come to the halls of Hades and dread Persephone to consult the shade of Theban Teiresias, the blind seer whose mind abides steadfast … and he will tell you the way and the measures of your path and your return, how you may go over the fish-laden deep.’ (Od. 10.488-493, 539 f.)
With these words Circe prepares Odysseus for his voyage to the land of the dead. Following the enchantress' instructions, he soon completes his mission: Teiresias is duly summoned, provides his information, then — at 11.151 — departs forever. But what of the rest of the book? Circe's words at the close of Book 10 have led us to expect none of the encounters which are described in 11.152-635, yet these occupy the greatest part of Odysseus' time among the shades. Particularly problematic has been the catalogue of women which extends from 225 through 332. Denys Page thought this passage an awkward interpolation, since the women who appear in it ‘have nothing whatever to do with Odysseus; he has nothing to say to them, and they have no motive for reciting to him their pedigrees … the episode is wholly irrelevant to Odysseus and his story; it is loosely attached and carelessly adapted to its surroundings …’ Shortly after Page published his views, however, T. B. L. Webster bluntly denied ‘all Page's strictures on [the passage's] quality’, suggesting that the list was genuine because it contained information which would have been ‘of extreme interest to the Ionian descendants of the Mycenaeans’; and W. B. Stanford restated his belief that the episode was authentic, noting again that it seemed an appropriately clever device by which Odysseus could entertain — and by so doing secure the favor of — Arete, the queen of the Phaeacians.