The spirits of the dead, lacking
in body consistence, were like shadows, yet kept a living look. They were
in possession of the foresight faculty but, for want of blood and flesh,
lacked self-consciousness. Libations that the living offered to the dead,
especially animal blood, could reanimate them, restore them to a temporary
consciousness and therefore make them available and suitable for disclosing
the future. Ulysses, down in the Hades, offered sacrifices
to the infernal gods, according to the instructions that Circe, the sorceress,
had given to him, then watched the poured blood,
lest the souls of the dead could take it all before he could consult Teiresias,
the soothsayer.