The Odyssey Anticleia Quotes

But look, the ghost
of my mother came! My mother, dead and gone now…
Anticleia – daughter of that great heart Autolycus –
whom I had left alive when I sailed for sacred Troy.
I broke into tears to see her here, but filled with pity,
even throbbing with grief, I would not let her ghost
approach the blood till I had questioned Tiresias myself.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 93-99. These lines describe Odysseus’ only encounter with his mother, when he sees her ghost in the House of Death. It is a painful moment for him, realizing that he will never see her again, and it reduces him to tears. This is an example of situational irony, because both Odysseus and the reader didn’t know that Anticleia was dead.

"But tell me about yourself and spare me nothing.
What form of death overcame you, what laid you low,
some long slow illness? Or did Artemis showering arrows
come with her painless shafts and bring you down?
Tell me of father, tell of the son I left behind:
…Please, tell me about my wife, her turn of mine,
her thoughts."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 193-197, 201-202. Odysseus meets the ghost of his mother Anticleia in the underworld. He wants to know all about the family he hasn’t laid eyes on since he sailed for Troy many years ago. He inquires about the cause of his mother’s death, asks about his father, son and wife Penelope.

"And I with the same grief, I died and met my fate.
No sharp-eyed Huntress showering arrows through the halls
approached and brought me down with painless shafts,
nor did some hateful illness strike me, that so often
devastates the body, drains our limbs of power.
No, it was my longing for you, my shining Odysseus –
you and your quickness, you and your gentle ways –
that tore away my life that had been sweet."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 193-196, 225-232. The ghost of Odysseus’ mother tells him how she died and met her fate. Anticleia reveals that it was not illness or the goddess Artemis’ painless arrows that killed her, but a broken heart and longing for her son.

And I, my mind in turmoil, how I longed
to embrace my mother’s spirit, dead as she was!
Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away
like a shadow, dissolving like a dream, and each time
the grief cut to the heart, sharper, yes, and I,
I cried out to her, words winging into the darkness.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 233-239. Odysseus laments that he cannot embrace the ghost of his mother. He cries out in desperation as he tries to hold her, but she just slips through his fingers. The emotional intensity of the scene is conveyed through the use of two vivid similes – "sifting away like a shadow, dissolving like a dream" – and a metaphor – "words winging into the darkness."

"My son, my son, the unluckiest man alive!
This is no deception sent by Queen Persephone,
this is just the way of mortals when we die.
Sinews no longer bind the flesh and bones together –
the fire in all its fury burns the body down to ashes
once life slips from the white bones, and the spirit,
rustling, flitters away…flown like a dream."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 247-253. Odysseus’ mother Anticleia assures him that she is no deception send by Zeus’ daughter Persephone to add to his sorrows. This is after Odysseus wonders if his mother’s appearance is some phantom image of her created by Persephone. Anticleia explains to him how mortals die, using a simile she says that life just slips away from them "like a dream." Anticleia’s reply is full of compassion for her son, whom she calls the unluckiest man alive.

"Laertes is still alive, but night and day
he prays to Zeus, waiting there in his house,
for the life breath to slip away and leave his body.
His heart’s so racked for his son, lost and gone these years,
for his wife so fine, so wise – her death is the worst blow
he’s had to suffer – it made him old before his time.
She died of grief for her boy, her glorious boy,
it wore her down, a wretched way to go."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 15, lines 393-400. Eumaeus tells Odysseus about Laertes’ heartache over his lost son, he just stays in his house waiting to die. More shockingly the swineherd reveals the toll on Odysseus’ mother. Anticleia missed her son so much that she died of a broken heart, Eumaeus announces.
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