Odysseus and his men sailed to the edge of the world, where the sun never shines. There they found the entrance to the land of the dead. Odysseus did what Circe had told him. He dug a hole in the ground and offered sheep to the dead.

Soon the ghosts came up from the dark. There were thousands of them: old men and young girls, and soldiers still wearing their armor. Odysseus was afraid, but he held his sword and waited for Tiresias.

At last, the ghost of the blind prophet appeared. "Odysseus," he said, "you want to go home, but Poseidon is still angry with you. You will have a hard trip. On the way, you will come to an island where the cattle of the Sun God eat grass. Do not hurt those animals. If you do, you will lose your ship and all your men. You will reach home very late, alone, on someone else's ship. And you will find trouble in your house."

Then Odysseus saw another ghost, and his heart stopped. It was his mother. She had been alive when he left for Troy.

"How did you die, Mother?" he asked.

"I missed you so much," she said. "I waited and waited for you to come home. In the end, my sadness killed me."

Odysseus reached out to hold her. Three times he tried, and three times she passed through his arms like smoke.

When they returned to Circe's island, the goddess gave Odysseus more advice. "Soon you will pass the island of the Sirens," she said. "They sing so beautifully that sailors forget everything and sail toward them. Around the Sirens lie the bones of many men. Put wax in your men's ears so that they cannot hear. If you want to hear the song yourself, tell them to tie you to the mast."

"After that," she continued, "you will come to a narrow passage between two cliffs. Under one cliff lives Charybdis. Three times a day, she drinks down the sea, and no ship can escape. On the other cliff lives Scylla, a monster with six long necks and six heads. You must sail close to Scylla. She will take six of your men. But if you go near Charybdis, you will lose everyone."

Everything happened as Circe said. As they came near the Sirens' island, the wind stopped and the sea became calm. Odysseus put wax in his men's ears, and they tied him to the mast. Then he heard the song.

"Come to us, famous Odysseus," the Sirens sang. "Stop your ship and listen. We know everything that happened at Troy. We know everything in the world."

The song was more beautiful than anything Odysseus had ever heard. He wanted to go to them more than anything. He shouted to his men to untie him, but they could not hear him. Instead, two of them stood up and tied him even more tightly. The ship rowed on, and the song grew quiet behind them.

Next came the narrow passage. On one side, Charybdis drank down the sea with a terrible noise, and the men watched in fear. They did not see Scylla. Odysseus had not told them about her, because he was afraid they would stop rowing and hide.

Suddenly, six long necks came down from the cliff. Six heads caught six men and lifted them into the air. The men called out Odysseus's name for the last time. It was the saddest thing Odysseus saw in all his travels.

Soon after, they came to a beautiful green island. Odysseus heard the cattle of the Sun God and remembered the prophet's words. "Let's not stop here," he said. But his men were too tired. "We need to rest," said Eurylochus. "We will stay only one night."

Odysseus made them promise not to touch the cattle. But that night a strong wind began to blow, and it did not stop for a whole month. The ship could not leave. Soon all the food was gone, and the men grew hungry.

One day, Odysseus went off alone to pray to the gods, and he fell asleep. While he slept, Eurylochus spoke to the other men. "It is terrible to die of hunger," he said. "Let's kill the best cows. We will say sorry to the gods later."

When Odysseus woke up, he smelled meat cooking. It was too late.

The Sun God was very angry, and he went to Zeus, the king of the gods. So when the ship finally sailed, Zeus sent a storm. His lightning hit the ship and broke it into pieces. All of Odysseus's men fell into the sea and died.

Only Odysseus survived. He held on to a piece of the broken ship, and the waves carried him back toward Charybdis. As she drank down the sea, he jumped up and caught the branches of a tree on the cliff. He hung there for hours, until she threw his piece of wood out again. Then he dropped onto it and floated away.

For nine days he drifted. On the tenth night, the waves carried him to a faraway island. It was the home of Calypso, a beautiful goddess.

Calypso fell in love with Odysseus. She took care of him and wanted him to stay with her forever. "If you stay," she said, "I will make you a god. You will never grow old and never die."

But Odysseus only wanted to go home. For seven long years, Calypso kept him on her island. Every day, he sat on the beach, looked out at the sea, and cried for Ithaca.