Elpenor

The youngest of Odysseus's crew, and the least distinguished — neither strong nor wise. On the last morning at Circe's house he had climbed onto the flat roof to sleep off his wine, and when the men cried the departure hour he started awake, forgot the ladder, and stepped off into air, breaking his neck on the ground below. In the haste of leaving he was left unburied in the hall. His was the first shade to greet Odysseus at the Nekyia, and he begged that when Odysseus returned to Aeaea he should burn the body and set an oar upright on the grave-mound as a marker (Homer *Odyssey* 10.552-560; 11.51-80).

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