What does the audience learn about odysseus from his encounters with his shipmate elpenor and his mother anticlea in book 11?

He learns that his mother is dead. When he left for the trojan war, his mother was alive. Seeing her on Kirke's Island, he started to cry knowing now that his mother wouldn't be waiting for him when he gets home. His mother died grieving on Odysseus's return. Elpenor was the guy who wandered up to Circe's roof, fell off, broke his neck, and died before departure. Elpenor requests in the Land of the dead that he is properly buried when the Greeks return. Being the good friend that he is, he sails back to Circe's Island to bury him.

I hope this helps:)