<span>Because it was a trial. Elpenor was drunk when Odysseus and his crew were finally leaving Circe’s island. He was climbing down from her roof when he slipped from a ladder and broke his neck. In the commotion, no one noticed his accident. Later, when Odysseus visits Hades to get advice on how to return home from the ghost of Tiresias, he is shocked to encounter the shade of Elpenor. He hadn’t even realized he was missing, let alone dead. Elpenor begs Odysseus to return and to give him an honorable burial. So now Odysseus is forced to sail all the way back to Circe’s island to fulfill this new obligation. It becomes one more task that he must accomplish before he can return home to Ithaca—otherwise known as a trial.</span>
