i
- The scene switches to Hector's yard, where Helen is taking down laundry and wishing that a sorrowing nightingale would just shut up.
- She is grieving like Penelope now, worried because Achille and his mate are presumed lost at sea.
- Helen has an erotic dream about Achille and, uh, consoles herself.
ii
- Philoctete thinks Achille has drowned, so he visits Seven Seas to calm his nerves.
- When he does, Seven Seas tells Philoctete that he's just been to Africa to reclaim his name and soul. Whoa.
- Philoctete decides to believe in miracles.
iii
- The narrator opens with "Circe embracing her swine"—perhaps a spirit visitation of Achille to Helen.
- We then see Achille running across the seabed back through three hundred years of history, including the drowning of Midshipman Plunkett. He awakens in a sorry state at dawn, on his boat.