Book nineteen of the Odyssey by Homer. The Odyssey, Book nineteen, Telemachus
and Ulysses remove the armor. Ulysses interviews Penelope. Euryclea washes his feet and
recognizes the scar on his leg. Penelope tells her dream to Ulysses. Ulysses
was left in the cloister, pondering on the means whereby, with Minerva's help,
he might be able to kill the suitors. Presently, he said to
Telemachus. Telemachus, we must get the armor together and take it down inside.
Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why you have removed it,
Say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke,
inasmuch as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses went away,
but has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Add to this more particularly,
that you are afraid Jove may set them on to quarrel over their wine,
and that they may do each other some harm, which may disgrace both banks
quit and wooing, for this side of arms sometimes tempts people to use them.
Telemachus approved of what his father had said, So we called nurse Eurycleia
and said, nurse, shut the women up in their rooms, while I
take the armor that my father left behind him down into the storeroom. No
one looks after it. Now my father is gone, and it has got
all smirched with soot during my own boyhood. I want to take it down
where the smoke cannot reach it. I wish child, answered Eurycleia that you
would take the management of the house into your own hands altogether and look after
all the property yourself. But who is to go with you when light you
to the storeroom. The maids would have done so, but you would not
let them. The stranger said, Telemachus, shall show me a light.
When people eat my bread, they must earn it, no matter where they
come from. Eurycleia did as she was told and bolted the women inside their
room. Then Ulysses and his son made all haste to take the helmets,
shields and spears inside, and Minerva went before them with a gold lamp in
her hand that shed a soft and brilliant radiance. Whereon Telemachus said, father,
my eyes behold a great marvel. The walls, with the rafters,
cross beams, and the supports on which they rest are all aglow as with
a flaming fire. Surely there is some god here who has come down from
heaven. Hush, answered Ulysses. Hold your peace and ask no questions,
for this is the manner of the gods. Get you to your bed and
leave me here to talk with your mother and the maids. Your mother,
in her grief, will ask me all sorts of questions. On this Telemachus
went by torchlight to the other side of the inner court, to the room
in which he always slept. There he lay in his bed till morning,
while Ulysses was left in the cloister, pondering on the means whereby, with
Minerva's help, he might be able to kill the suitors. Then Penelope came
down from her room, looking like Venus or Diana, and they set her
a seat inlaid with scrolls of silver and ivory, near the fire in her
accustomed place. It had been made by Achmlius, and had a footstool all
in one piece with the seat itself, and it was covered with a thick
fleece. On this she now sat, and the maids came from the women's
room to join her. They set about removing the tables at which the wicked
suitors had been dining, and took away the bread that was left with the
cups from which they had drunk. They emptied the embers out of the braziers
and heaped much wood upon them to give both light and heat. But Melantho
began to rail at Ulysses a second time, and said, stranger, do
you mean to plague us by hanging about the house all night and spying upon
the women? Be off, you wretch outside and eat your supper there,
or you shall be driven out with a firebrand. Ulysses scout at her and
answered, my good woman, why should you be so angry with me?
Is it because I am not clean and my clothes are all in rags?
And because I am obliged to go begging about after the manner of tramps and
beggars? Generally, I too was a rich man once, and had a
fine house of my own. In those days, I gave to many a
tramp such as I now am, no matter who he might be, nor
what he wanted. I had any number of servants, and all the other
things which people have who live well and are accounted wealthy. But it pleased
Jove to take all away from me. Therefore, a woman, beware,
lest you two come to lose that pride and place in which you now want.
And above your fellows, have a care lest you get out of favor
with your mistress, and lest Ulysses should come home, for there is still
a chance that he may do so. Moreover, though he may be dead,
as you think he is, yet by Apollo's will, he has left
a son behind him, Telemachus, who will note anything done amiss by the
maids in the house, for he is now no longer in his boyhood.
Penelope heard what he was saying and scolded the maid impudent Baggage. Said she,
I see how abominably you are behaving, and you shall smart for it.
You knew perfectly well, for I told you myself that I was going
to see the stranger and ask him about my husband, for whose sake I
am in such continual sorrow. Then she said to her head, waiting woman,
your enemy, bring a seat with a fleece upon it, for the
stranger to sit upon while he tells his story, and listen to what I
have to say. I wish to ask him some questions. Your enemy brought
the seat at once and set a fleece upon it, And as soon as
Ulysses had sat down, Penelope began by saying, stranger, I shall first
ask you who and whence are you? Tell me of your town and parents.
Madam answered Ulysses, who on the face of a whole earth can dare
to chide with you? Your fame reaches the firmament of heaven itself. You
are like some blameless king who upholds righteousness, as the monarch over a great
and valiant nation. The earth yields its wheat and barley, the trees are
loaded with fruit, the ewes bring forth lambs, and the sea abounds with
fish. By reason of his virtues, and his people do good deeds under
him. Nevertheless, as I sit here in your house, ask me some
other question, and do not seek to know my race and family, or
you will recall memories that will yet more increase my sorrow. I am full
of heaviness. But I ought not to sit weeping and wailing in another person's
house. Nor is it well to be thus grieving continually. I shall have
one of the servants, or even yourself, complaining of me and saying that
my eyes swim with tears because I am heavy with wine. Then Penelope answered,
stranger, Heaven robbed me of all beauty, whether of face or figure.
When the argives set sail for Troy, and my dear husband with them,
if he were to return and look after my affairs, I should be
both more respected and should show a better presence to the world. As it
is, I am oppressed with care and with the afflictions which Heaven has seen
fit to heap upon me. The chiefs from all our islands, Toulichium,
Sami, and Zacanthus, as also from Ithaca itself, are wooing me against
my will, and are wasting my estate. I can therefore show no attention
to strangers, nor suppliants, nor to people who say that they are skilled
artisans, but am all the time broken hearted about Ulysses. They want me
to marry again at once, and I have to invent stratagem in order to
deceive them. In the first place, Heaven put it in my mind to
set up a great tambour frame in my room and to begin working upon an
enormous piece of fine needlework. Then I said to them, sweethearts, Ulysses
is indeed dead. Still do not press me to marry again immediately wait,
for I would not have my skill in needlework perish unrecorded till I have finished
making a pall for the hero Laerties to be ready against the time when death
shall take him. He is very rich, and the women of the place
will talk if he is laid out without a pall. This was what I
said, and they assented. Where I used to keep working at my great
web all day long, but at night I would unpick the stitches again by
torchlight. I fooled them in this way for three years without their finding it
out. But as time wore on, and I was now in my fourth
year in the waning of moons, and many days had been accomplish those good
for nothing hussies, my maids betrayed me to the suitors, who broke in
upon me and caught me. They were very angry with me, so I
was forced to finish my work, whether I would or no. And now
I do not see how I can find another further shift for getting out of
this marriage. My parents are putting great pressure upon me, and my son
chafes at the ravages the suitors are making upon his estate, for he is
now old enough to understand all about it, and is perfectly able to look
after his own affairs, for Heaven has blessed him with an excellent disposition.
Still, notwithstanding all this, tell me who you are and where you come
from, For you must have had father and mother of some sort. You
cannot be the son of an oak or of a rock, then, Ulysses
answered, Madam, wife of Ulysses, Since you persist in asking me about
my family, I will answer, no matter what it costs me. People
must expect to he pained when they have been exiles as long as I have,
and suffered as much among as many peoples. Nevertheless, as regards your
question, I will tell you all you ask. There is a fair and
fruitful island in mid ocean called Crete. It is thickly peopled, and there
are ninety cities in it. The people speak many different languages which overlap one
another. For there are Achaeans, brave Etiocretans, Dorians of threefold race,
and noble Pulaski. There is a great town there, Nosus, where Minus
reigned, who every nine years had a conference with Jove himself. Minus was
father to Ducalian, whose son I am. For Ducalian had two sons Idomeneus
and myself. Idomeneus sailed for Troy, and I, who am the younger,
am called Athon. My brother, however, was at once the older
and the more valiant of the two. Hence it was in Crete that I
saw Ulysses and showed him hospitality, for the winds took him there as he
was on his way to Troy, carrying him out of his course from Cape
Malia, and leaving him an Amnesus off the cave of Illithuia, where the
harbors are difficult to enter, and he could hardly find shelter from the winds
that were then raging. As soon as he got there, he went into
the town and asked for Idomeneus, claiming to be his old and valued friend.
But I, Domineus had already set sail for Troy, some ten or
twelve days earlier. So I took him to my own house and showed him
every kind of hospitality, for I had abundance of everything. Moreover, I
fed the men who were with him with barley meal from the public store,
and got subscriptions of wine and oxen for them to sacrifice to their heart's content.
They stayed with me twelve days, for there was a gale blowing from
the north, so strong that one could hardly keep one's feet on land.
I suppose some unfriendly God had raised it for them. But on the thirteenth
day the wind dropped and they got away. Many a plausible tale did Ulysses
further tell her, And Penelope wept as she listened, for her heart was
melted as the snow wastes upon the mountaintops when the winds from southeast and west
have breathed upon it, and thought it till the rivers run blank full with
water. Even so did her cheeks overflow with tears. For the husband,
who was all the time sitting by her side. Ulysses felt for her and
was sorry for her. But he kept his eyes as hard as horn or
iron, without letting them so much as quiver. So cunningly did he restrain
his tears. Then, when she had relieved herself by weeping, she turned
to him again and said, now, stranger, I shall put you to
the test and see whether or no you really did entertain my husband and his
men as you say you did. Tell me then, how he was dressed,
what kind of a man he was to look at, and so also
with his companions. Madam answered Ulysses, it is such a long time ago
that I can hardly say twenty years are come and gone since he left my
home and went elsewhither. But I will tell you as well as I can
recollect. Ulysses wore a mantle of purple wool, double lined, and it
was fastened by a gold brooch with two catches for the pin. On the
face of this there was a device that showed a dog holding a spotted fawn
between his fore paws and watching it as it lay panting upon the ground.
Everyone marveled at the way in which these things had been done in gold,
the dog looking at the fawn and strangling it, while the fawn was struggling
convulsively to escape. As for the shirt that he wore next his skin,
it was so soft that it fitted him like the skin of an onion,
and glistened in the sunlight, to the admiration of all the women who beheld
it. Furthermore, I say, and laying my saying to your heart.
And I do not know whether Ulysses wore these clothes when he left home,
or whether one of his companions had given them to him while he was on
his voyage, or possibly someone at whose house he was staying, made him
a present of them, for he was a man of many friends, and
had few equals among the Achaeans. I myself gave him a sword of bronze
and a beautiful purple mantle, double lined, with a shirt that went down
to his feet, and I sent him on board his ship with every mark
of honor. He had a servant with him, a little older than himself,
and I can tell you what he was like. His shoulders were hunched,
he was dark, and he had thick, curly hair. His name
was Eurybates. And Ulysses treated him with greater familiarity than he did any of
the others, as being the most like minded with himself. Penelope was moved
still more deeply as she heard the indisputable proofs that Ulysses laid before her,
and and she had again found relief in tears. She said to him,
stranger, I was already disposed to pity you, but henceforth you shall be
honored and made welcome in my house. It was I who gave Ulysses the
clothes you speak of. I took them out of the storeroom and folded them
up myself, and gave him also the gold brooch to wear as an ornament
alas I shall never welcome him home again. It was by an ill fate
that he ever set out for that detested city, whose very name I cannot
bring myself even to mention. Then Ulysses answered, Madam, wife of Ulysses,
do not disfigure yourself further by grieving thus bitterly for your loss, though
I can hardly blame you for doing so. A woman who has loved her
husband and borne him children would naturally be grieved at losing him, even though
he were a worse man than Ulysses, who they say was like a god.
I cease your tears and listen to what I can tell you. I
will hide nothing from you, and can say with perfect truth that I have
laidly heard of Ulysses as being alive and on his way home. He is
among the Thesprotians, and is bringing back much valuable treasure that he has begged
from one and another of them. But his ship and all his crew were
lost as they were leaving the Natian island. For Jove and the Sun God
were angry with him because his men had slaughtered the sun god's cattle, and
they were all drowned to a man. But Ulysses stuck to the keel of
the ship and was drifted on to the land of the Phaeacians, who were
near of kin to the immortals, and who treated him as though he had
been a god, giving him many presents and wishing to escort him home safe
and sound. In fact, Ulysses would have been here long ago had he
not thought better to go from land to land gathering wealth. For there is
no man living who is so wily as he is. There is no one
who compare with him. Phadan, king of the Thesprotians, told me all
this, and he swore to me, making drink offerings in his house as
he did so that the ship was by the waterside and the crew found who
could take Ulysses to his own country. He sent me off first, for
there happened to be a Thesprosian ship sailing for the wheat growing island of Doulichium.
But he showed me all the treasure. Ulysses had got together, and
he had enough lying in the house of King Phadan to keep his family for
ten generations. But the king said Ulysses had gone to Dodona, that he
might learn Jove's mind from the high oak tree, and know whether, after
so long an absence, he should return to Ithaca openly or in secret,
so you may know he is safe and will be here shortly. He is
close at hand, and cannot remain away from home much longer. Nevertheless,
I will confirm my words with an oath, and call Jove, who was
the first and mightiest of all gods, to witness, as also that heart
of Ulysses, to which I have now come, that all I have spoken
shall surely come to pass. Ulysses will return in this self same year,
with the end of this moon and the beginning of the next, he will
be here. May it be even so, answered Penelope, if your words
come true, you shall have such gifts and such good will from me that
all who see you shall congratulate you. But I know very well how it
will be. Ulysses will not return, neither will you get your escort.
Hence, for so surely as that Ulysses ever was, there are now no
longer any such masters in the house as he was to receive honorable strangers,
or to further them on their way home. And now you maids wash his
feet for him, and make him a bed on a couch with rugs and
blankets, that he may be warm and quiet till morning. Then at daybreak
wash him and annoint him again, that he may in the cloister and take
his meals with Telemachus. It shall be the worse for any one of these
hateful people who is uncivil to him, Like it or not, he shall
have no more to do in this house. For how sir, shall you
be able to learn whether or no I am superior to others of my sex,
both in goodness of heart and understanding, if I let you dine in
my cloister. Squalid and ill clad men live but for a little season.
If they are hard and deal hardly, people wish them ill so long as
they are alive, and speak contemptuously of them when they are dead. But
he that is righteous and deals righteously, the people tell of his praise among
all lands, and many shall call him blest. Ulysses answered, Madam,
I have four sworn rugs and blankets from the day that I left the snowy
ranges of crete to go on shipboard. I will lie as I have lain
on many a sleepless night hitherto night after night have I passed in any rough
sleeping place and waited for morning? Nor again do I like having my feet
washed. I shall not let any of the young hussies about your house touch
my feet. But if you have any old and respectable woman who has gone
through as much trouble as I have, I will allow her to wash them.
To this Penelope, said my dear sir. Of all the guests who
have ever yet come to my house, there never was one who spoke in
all things with such admirable propriety as you do. There happens to be in
the house a most respectable old woman, the same who received my poor dear
husband in her arms the night he was born, and nursed him in infancy.
She is very feeble now, but she shall wash your feet. Come
here, said she, Eurycleia, and wash your master's age. Mate.
I suppose Ulysses hands and feet are very much the same now as his are.
For trouble ages, all of us dreadfully fast on these words. The
old woman covered her face with her hands. She began to weep and made
lamentation, saying, my dear child, I cannot think whatever I am to
do with you. I am certain no one was ever more God fearing than
yourself, And yet Jove hates you. No one in the whole world ever
burned him more thigh bones, nor gave him finer hecatombs. When you prayed
you might come to a green old age yourself and see your son grow up
to take after you. Yet see how he has prevented you alone from ever
getting back to your own home. I have no doubt the women in some
foreign place which Ulysses has got to, are gibing at him, as all
these slots here have been gibing at you. I do not wonder that you
are not choosing to let them wash you, after the manner into which they
have insulted you. I will wash your feet myself gladly enough, as Penelope
has said that I am to do so. I will wash them both for
Penelope's sake and for your own. For you have raised the most lively feelings
of compassion in my mind. And let me say this moreover, which pray
attend to. We have had all kinds of strangers in distress come here before
now. But I make bold to say that no one ever yet came who
was so like Ulysses in figure, voice and feet as you are. Those
who have seen us both answered, Ulysses have always said we were wonderfully like
each other, and now you have noticed it too. Then the old woman
took the cauldron in which she was going to wash his feet, and poured
plenty of cold water into it, adding hot till the bath was warm enough.
Ulysses sat by the fire, but ere long he turned away from the
light, for it occurred to him that when the old woman had hold of
his leg, she would recognize a certain scar which it bore, whereon the
whole truth would come out. And indeed, as soon as she began washing
her master, she at once knew the scar as one that had been given
him by a wild boar when he was hunting on Mount Parnassus with his excellent
grandfather Autolycus, who was the most accomplished thief and perjurer in the whole world,
and with the sons of Autolycus. Mercury himself had endowed him with this
gift, for he used to burn the thigh bones of goats and kids to
him, so he took pleasure in his companionship. It happened once that Autolycus
had gone to Ithaca and had found the child of his daughter just born.
As soon as he had done supper, Euryclius set the infant upon his knees
and said, Autolycus, you must find a name for your grandson. You
greatly wished that you might have one son in law, and daughter. Replied
Autolycus called the child. Thus, I am highly displeased with a large number
of people in one place and another, both men and women. So named
the child Ulysses, or the child of Anger. When he grows up and
comes to visit his mother's family on Mount Parnassus, where my possessions lie,
I will make him a present and will send him on his way. Rejoicing,
Ulysses therefore went to Parnassus to get the presents from Autolycus, who with
his sons, shook hands with him and gave him welcome. His grandmother Amphathea
threw her arms about him and kissed his head and both his beautiful eyes.
While Autolycus desired his sons to get dinner ready, and they did as he
told them. They brought in a five year old bull, flayed it,
made it ready, and divided it into joints. These they then cut carefully
up into smaller pieces and spitted them. They roasted them sufficiently and served the
portions round. Thus, through the livelong day to the going down of the
sun they feasted, and every man had his full share, so that all
were satisfied. But when the sun set and it came on dark, they
went to bed and enjoyed the boon of sleep. When the child of morning,
rosy finger dawn appeared, the sons of Autolycus went out with their hounds
hunting, and Ulysses went to They climbed the wooded slopes of Parnassus and soon
reached its breezy upland valleys. But as the sun was beginning to beat upon
the fields, fresh risen from the slow still currents of Oceanus, they came
to a mountain dell. The dogs were in front, searching for the tracks
of the beasts they were chasing, and after them came the sons of Autolycus,
among whom was Ulysses, close behind the dogs, and he had a
long spear in his hand. Here was the lair of a huge boar among
some thick brushwood, so dense that the wind and rain could not get through
it, nor could the sun's rays pierce it, and the ground underneath lay
thick with fallen leaves. The boar heard the noise of the men's feet and
the hounds baying on every side as the huntsman came up to him, so
he rushed from his lair, raised the bristles on his neck, and stood
at bay with fire flashing from his eyes. Ulysses was the first to raise
his spear and tried to drive it into the brute, but the boar was
too quick for him and charged him sideways, ripping him above the knee with
a gash that tore deep, though it did not reach the bone. As
for the boar, Ulysses hid him on the right shoulder, and the point
of the spear went right through him, so that he fell groaning in the
dust until the life went out of him. The sons of Autolycus busied themselves
with the carcass of the boar and bound Ulysses wound. Then, after saying
a spell to stop the bleeding, they went home as fast as they could.
But when Autolycus and his sons had thoroughly healed Ulysses, they made him
some splendid presents and sent him back to Ithaca with much mutual goodwill. When
he got back, his father and mother were rejoiced to see him and asked
him all about it and how he had hurt himself to get the scar So
he told them how the boar had ripped him when he was out hunting with
Autolycus and his sons on Mount Parnassus. As soon as Euuclia had got the
scarred limb in her hands and had well hold of it, she recognized it
and dropped the foot at once. The lake fell into the bath, which
rang out and was overturned, so that all the water was spilt on the
ground. Eurycleia's eyes, between her joy and her grief, filled with tears,
and she could not speak. But she caught Ulysses by the beard and
said, my dear child, I am sure you must be Ulysses himself.
Only I did not know you till I had actually touched and handled you.
As she spoke, she looked towards Penelope, as though wanting to tell her
that her dear husband was in the house. But Penelope was unable to look
in that direction and observe what was going on, for Minerva had diverted her
attention. So Ulysses caught Eurycleia by the throat with his right hand, and
with his left drew her close to him, and said, nurse, do
you wish to be the ruin of me? You who nursed me at your
own breast? Now that after twenty years of wandering, I am at last
come to my own home again, since it has been borne in upon you
by Heaven to recognize me. Hold your tongue and do not say a word
about it to any one else in the house, For if you do,
I tell you, and it shall surely be that, if Heaven grants me
to take the lives of these suitors, I will not spare you, though
you are my own nurse, when I am killing the other women. My
child answered, Eyclia, what are you talking about? You know very well
that nothing can either bend or break me. I will hold my tongue like
a stone or a piece of iron. Furthermore, let me say and lay
my saying to your heart. When Heaven has delivered the suitors into your hand,
I will give you a list of all the women in the house who
have been ill behaved, and of those who are guilt, and Ulysses answered,
nurse, you want not to speak in that way. I am well
able to form my own opinion about one and all of them. Hold your
tongue and leave everything to Heaven. As he said this, Eurycleia left the
cloister to fetch some more water, for the first had been all spilt.
And when she had washed him and anointed him with oil, Ulysses drew his
seat nearer to the fire to warm himself, and hid the scar under his
rags. Then Penelope began talking to him and said, stranger, I should
like to speak with you briefly about another matter. It is indeed nearly bedtime
for those at least who can sleep in spite of sorrow. As for myself,
Heaven has given me a life of such unmeasurable woe that even by day,
when I am attending to my duties and looking after the servants, I
am still weeping and lamenting during the whole time. Then when night come and
we all of us go to bed, I lie awake thinking, and my
heart becomes a prey to the most incessant and cruel tortures. As the dun
Nightingale, daughter of pandareus sings in the early spring from her seat and shadiest
covert hid, and with many a plaintive trill pours out the tail. How
by mishap she killed her own child, Itolus, son of King Zethus.
Even so does my mind toss and turn in its uncertainty, whether I ought
to stay with my son here and safeguard my substance, my bondsman, and
the greatness of my house out of regard to public opinion and the memory of
my late husband, or whether it is not now time for me to go
with the best of these suitors who are wooing me and make me some magnificent
presence. As long as my son was still young and unable to understand,
he would not hear of my leaving my husband's house. But now that he
is full grown, he begs and prays me to do so, being incensed
at the way in which the suitors are eating up his property. Listen then
to a dream that I have had, and interpret it for me, if
you can. I have twenty geese about the house that eat mash out of
a trough, and of which I am exceedingly fond. I dreamed that a
great eagle came swooping down from a mountain and dug his curved beak into the
neck of each of them, till he had killed them all. Presently,
he soared off into the sky and left them lying dead about the yard,
whereon I wept in my dream till all my maids gathered round me. So
piteously was I grieving because the eagle had killed my geese. Then he came
back again, and, perching on a projecting rafter, spoke to me with
human voice and told me to leave off crying. Be of good courage,
He said, Daughter of Vicarious, this is no dream, but a vision
of good omen that shall surely come to pass. The geese are the suitors,
and I am no longer an eagle, but your own husband, who
am come back to you, and who will bring these suitors to a disgraceful
end. On this I woke, and when I looked out, I saw
my geese at the trough eating their mash as usual this dream, Madam replied,
Ulysses can admit but of one interpretation, For had not Ulysses himself told
you how it shall be fulfilled. The death of the suitors is portended,
and not one single one of them will escape, And Penelope answered, stranger.
Dreams are very curious and unaccountable things, and they do not, by
any means invariably come true. There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies
proceed. The one is of Horn, and the other Ivory. Those that
come through the gate of Ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of
Horn means something to those that see them. I do not think, however,
that my own own dream came through the gate of Horn, though I
and my son should be most thankful if it proves to have done so.
Furthermore, I say, and lay my saying to your heart, the coming
dawn will usher in the ill omened day, that is to sever me from
the house of Ulysses. For I am about to hold a tournament of axes.
My husband used to set up twelve axes in the court, one in
front of the other, like the stays upon which a ship is built.
He would then go back from them and shoot an arrow through the whole twelve.
I shall make the suitors try to do the same thing, and whichever
of them can string the bow most easily and send his arrow through all the
twelve axes him, will I follow and quit this house of my lawful husband,
so goodly and so abounding in wealth. But even so I doubt not
that I shall remember it in my dreams. Then, Ulysses answered, Madam,
wife of Ulysses, you need not defer your tournament, for Ulysses will
turn erever they can string the bow, handle it how they will, and
send their arrows through the iron. To this, Penelope said, as long
sir, as you will sit here and talk to me, I can have
no desire to go to bed. Still, people cannot do permanently without sleep,
and Heaven has appointed us dwellers on earth the time for all things.
I will therefore go upstairs and recline upon that couch which I have never ceased
to flood with my tears from the day Ulyssi set out for the city with
a hateful name. She then went upstairs to her own room, not alone,
but attended by her maidens, And when there she lamented her dear husband
till Minerva shed sweet sleep over her eyelids. End of book nineteen