Sacrifices
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.

Back to oracle