The Kingdom of the Dead

And deep through the underworld we went. I encountered a plethora of my comrades and loved ones.

First to greet me was Gary, once a fellow on my ship.

"Gary, my friend, how have you come here so fast? I thought we had all boarded the ship together!" I cried.

As Gary saw me, he waddled slowly towards me on his snail-like legs.

"Patrick, oh don't forget me! While at Circe's I drank so much wine and somehow landed on a rooftop! I do not remember coming up here, nor did I remember how to get back down! However, in my anxiousness, I thought I had found a way back down, and as I stepped off the tip of the roof, I slipped and broke my shell! Nobody was there to see this, thankfully, but I later died from my injuries," replied Gary.

"Oh Gary, you were always the funniest of us all. Why did Poseidon have to take you too!" I shrank down to my knees and into the dirt, wept at his feet.

"Do not forget me, Patrick, for your wily and cunning deeds will cost you! Bury me and give me rest!" said Gary.

Wiping the dirt off my knees, I got up and tried to embrace him. However, my embrace was met with just emptiness as I simply just went right through him.

Next, the great prophet Tiresias himself appeared underneath a hooded robe.

"Tiresias! Circe sent me down here to talk to you!" I said.

However, Tiresias only looked at me briefly and walked away.

"Tiresias, wait!" I reached out to grab him, but my starfish hands simply went through him.

Tiresias stopped, and looked back at me and said,

"Patrick, here in the underworld, nobody has bodies anymore. You must make haste quickly! The dude that you blinded, the Cyclops, actually ended up being Poseidon's son! You're screwed! But ... all of you can still make it home! You will land upon an island, and as hungry as you are, you must not eat the jelly from the jellyfish! They belong to a powerful god! If you do, you will all die! However, Patrick, even if YOU survive, you will get home late. You heard me, now I must go!"

And with that, Tiresias disappeared quickly as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy did on their invisible boat mobile.

Pondering what he said, I looked left and saw... my mother?

"Mother? Is that you? It's me, your son, Patrick!" I yelled.

But it's as if she did not even hear me. She kept walking.

"Mother! Why must you walk away from me? Could you be simply an illusion, a wraith, to bring my sorrow?" I cried.

She looked at me and said,

"My dear son Patrick! This is not a wraith. I am your mother. When I died and entered into here, and my body completely changed. I no longer have flesh as I used to and you cannot touch me. However, this is no place for the living!"

"How did you end up here? Last time I remembered, you were still alive!" I cried.

"Patrick, you have been gone for close to a decade! Your son, Telemachus is grown now. He grew up to be a fine young man, despite not having a dad there, and your wife is still faithful. Your dad now sleeps in a little rock outside by himself. Every day, he and I would go out and pray to Poseidon , longing for your return. Filled with grief and old age, he suffers. It is with the same grief and longing that killed me. Oh, it was not a sweet death you expect. I died with sorrow, longing to see you but realizing I never would, not in the world of the living. For death is not sweet, my son. You too will have this fate one day. Patrick, you must go home now! Remember me and what you have seen here so that you might tell your wife and your son." she said.

Her stung my like a jellyfish. I wept and exchanged words of goodbyes with her and she disappeared.

Next, I encountered the great warriors of the Trojan war who died, including... Achilles!

"Achilles, your name lives on forever! You truly had an honorable death!" I said.

However, Achilles did not seem consoled with this for he did not even ask about his name or who remembers him.

"Don't talk to me about death, Patrick! Why have you have come down here? Oh, how I would rather suffer a slave in the world of the living than to be remembered as a hero but spend the rest of my life down here! There is no joyous death, Patrick. There is only suffering. However, enough about me, how is my son doing? Oh please tell me he made it out alive!" said Achilles.

I was shook. I never thought that Achilles, who when he was alive, only desired for his glory, to be humbled only in the afterlife.

"Your son is fine, Achilles. He lives on and carries your name. After Troy, I saw him get on a ship, unscathed and untouched," I said.

With that being said, Achilles slowly disappeared.

"Oh, how death only brings sorrow!" I thought to myself, for even Achilles would rather suffer alive than to be remembered as a dead man. I must get home!

Author's notes:

This is from Book XI of the The Odyssey. Odysseus enters into the underworld and encounters a wide variety of characters. Among them are Elpenor, Tiresias, Odysseus's mom, and Achilles. All these characters had their own distinct messages about death and the afterlife, but also, related to the theme of nostos. I wanted to maintain the same themes while adding some comic relief with Spongebob characters and references. Furthermore, all the characters that I replaced with Spongebob characters were all Patrick's crew members. This is important to note, because all these people died under Patrick's leadership. Comparing Patrick and Odysseus in terms of their leadership capabilities and who made it home, the characters are pretty similar. Next, the characters not aboard or directly associated with Patrick, I kept from the original story. Characters like Achilles and Tiresias, are integral to the progression of the Odyssey and I thought it was important to keep their identities in order to maintain the tone of seriousness.

Regarding the message of this scene, each character that Odysseus met in the underworld all had their own unique messages, but in some ways all related to the theme of nostos. Basically death was terrible and Odysseus must get home because he is still alive. The underworld is no place for the living. Lastly, the scene with Achilles is important because The Iliad was all about glory or kleos. This scene provides a look into what ambition and glory can lead to. At least for Achilles, none of that glory matters if you're dead. Thus, because Odysseus is alive, he must go home.

For the story, I replaced, of course, Odysseus with Patrick and Elpenor with Gary, Spongebob's pet.

Bibliography:

Robert Fagles, The Odyssey