Note 796 — Chapter VIII · THE SACRIFICE
Beatrice M. Hinkle translation
Compare the beautiful passage in the journey to Hades of Odysseus, where the hero wishes to embrace his mother.
“But I, thrilled by inner longing,
Wanted to embrace the soul of my departed mother.
Three times I endeavored, full of passionate desire for the embrace:
Three times from my hands she escaped
Like nocturnal shades and the images of dreams,
And in my heart sadness grew more intense.” (“Odyss.,” XI, 204.)
The underworld, hell, is indeed the place of unfulfilled longing. The Tantalus motive is found through all of hell.