In the Shadow Realm of Lies

The trickster Odysseus is sent into the realm of the shades to learn the truth about his fate. There he is confronted inescapably with his past. First reminded by Tiresias of the reason for his wanderings—his misjudgment of Poseidon and the sea god’s consequent anger—he is then approached by the apparition of his mother, followed by his former comrades in arms, who one after another disclose their knowledge in return for a drink of sacrificial blood. The trickster Chichikov undertakes a similar journey into Hades, with the difference that the figures he meets there have played no role