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a deeper purpose, enabling the hero to contemplate the fate of those who have lived before, and also to consult them on matters vital to his future. When Odysseus is guided by Circe to the gate of the netherworld which lies beyond the River of Fear and the City of Perpetual Mist, on the very edge of the world, he meets the long-dead seer Teiresias, who gives him the advice which will enable him, alone of all his men, to reach his goal; predicting for the hero exactly how the rest of his journey and his life will unfold. When Aeneas finally arrives on the shores of Italy, his first duty (as he has been advised by a ghostly vision of his dead father Anchises) is to pay a visit to the maiden-priestess, the Cumaean Sibyl. Beside an echoing cavern in the mountainside, the Sibyl summons up the god of the oracle within:

`suddenly ... her hair fell in disarray ... her bursting heart was wild and sad, She appeared taller and spoke in no mortal tones.'

The prophetess gives him careful instructions as to how he can descend into the underworld (Aeneas first has to search `the endless forest', with the aid of two doves, for the `golden bough', which is protected in the dark of the forest by a little circle of light). They eventually make their their descent, witnessing every kind of monster and horror, and the shades of the damned enduring eternal punishment. Finally they come to the Land of Joy and the Fortunate Woods, where they find the wise old Anchises who, like Teiresias, reveals to Aeneas the nature of the ordeals he still has to face, his future life and the glorious prospects for his descendants when the new city of Rome has been founded. With this advice and guarantee of his eventual success, Aeneas is at last ready for the final stages of his Quest.3

The helpers

In addition to all the negative figures the hero and his companions meet on the journey, they also, as we have seen, encounter some very different figures: the `helpers' who give them positive assistance, ranging from periods of respite to crucial guidance. And among these two very important figures predominate, who are to be met with in countless guises, not just in Quest stories but throughout literature.

We have already begun to meet them in the characters of the old seers Teiresias and Anchises on the one hand, and that of the Sibylline priestess on the other. These are the figures of a benevolent, usually wise old man, and a beautiful young (though often mysteriously ageless) woman.

At the most basic level, the old man and the young woman may simply provide hospitality, rest, food, nursing care and other material assistance, as Odysseus receives from the kindly King Alcinous and his daughter, the Princess Nausicaa, when he is washed up exhausted on their island, after being shipwrecked. A similar pair appear to help Allan Quatermain and his friends when they arrive in the lost land of Solomon: the old man Infadoo who warns them of many dangers, and the beautiful Foulata.

In fact the `old man' and the `young woman' are of ever greater significance to the hero the nearer they come to being invested with supernatural powers. Their role is not so much to intervene in the action as to act as guides and advisers, drawing on supernatural wisdom and prescience. Perhaps the supreme example of such a pair of guides in literature are the venerable sage Virgil and beautiful Beatrice who lead Dante on his journey up to Paradise in the Divine Comedy.

In the stories we are considering here, the supreme example of a'wise old man' must be the mysterious figure who from start to finish guides the Jews on their hazardous journey to the promised land, the 'Ancient of Days, Jahweh himself. Not only does he appear to Moses at crucial moments of the story to reprimand, advise and warn him, but he gives many `signs' to the Jews that they are on the right path, such as the miraculous `pillar of fire' which leads them on through the trackless wilderness. It is no accident that in all attempts which have ever been made by artists or film-makers to personify this figure (as in