This lack of individuality in the Underworld of Virgil is of course what lends to it its nightmarish, frightening qualities, which on the whole are not shared by Homer 's version. In the Odyssey, although certain tortures are described in detail, there is little sense of true misery, and even less a sense of fright on the part of Death 's inhabitants. Indeed, these creatures are living out their punishments purely for themselves; although seen by Odysseus, they are never "on display" in the way that Virgil 's figures are. In the Virgilian Hades, by contrast, the tortured souls become even more pitiful by virtue of their exposure to the public eye: the purpose of their punishment seems to be not only a personal tribulation, but a warning and