#they are repeating memories that cannot pass on and are trapped in a stagnant state of their death

[seeminglyseph]

If you are concerned about Polites dragging Odysseus down in "Get In The Water," please know that Shades are not the same as Souls. They are not representations of the complete self. Once a person has died, they do not have their whole self anymore. The scene in The Odyssey, where Odysseus is able to have complete conversations with the dead, is due to magic kind of reviving them a little for a bit. There's definitely like... something there for a Shade to be judged and like... for there to be preferable afterlife options, etc.

But, Shade Polites being part of a mob dragging Odysseus down is not a sign that Polites or Anticlea having ill will towards him in any way. It is simply part of the tragedy of the dead that they don't possess the will or motivation of the living, and Polites did not receive proper funeral rites. His Shade cannot be set at peace, and so it repeats his last thoughts endlessly and reaches out without a mind towards things it vaguely recognizes without conscious intent to cause harm.

I think it's implied Anticlea walked into the sea at the sight of what seemed to be her son dying in a storm just off the cost of Ithica which is why she also did not have a body that could have appropriate funeral rites performed but I could be incorrect.

Funeral rites are really important for this reason, Shades that wander but can't pass on can be... just. Passively fucked up. It also fades over time. It's the stuff haunting are made out of.