Book nineteen. Telemachus and Ulysses remove the armor. Ulysses interviews Penelope. Eurycleia,
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 minervous 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 sood. 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 the banquet and the willing, for the sight of arms
sometimes tempts people to use them. Telemachus approved of what his father had said,
so he called his orse Ereclia and said, nurse, shut the women
up in their room. Will 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 god all smirched with soot during my own boyhood.
I want to take it down where the smoke cannot reach it. I
wish child, answered Euryclia 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 and let 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. Euryclia 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 golden 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 supports on which
they rest, are all glowing 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 and 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 Icmalius,
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, uttered the braziers, and heaped much wood upon them to give
them both light and heat. But Melantho began to rail at Ulysses's second time,
and said, stranger, do you mean to pu 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 scowled 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 am now, 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 too come to lose that pride and place
in which you now wanton 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
be as dead as you think he is, yet by Apollo's will, he
has left a son behind him. Tell Himachus, who will note anything done
amiss by the maids in the house, for he is now no longer in
his boyhood. Penelope, you heard what he was saying, and scolded the
maid impudent baggage. She said, I see how abominably you are behaving,
and you shall smart for it. You know 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, uryinome bring a seat with fleece upon it,
for the stranger to sit upon while he tells his story. Listens to
what I have to say. I wish to ask him some questions. Your
Ainomeh 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 you are? Tell me of your town
and parents. Madam answered, ulysses, who in the face of the 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 yielded to eaten barley, the
trees are loaded with fruit, the ewes bring forth lamb, 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 us grieving continually. I
shall have one of your servants or even yourself, complaining of me, and
saying that my eyes swim with tears because I am heavy with wine. Then
Penelope answered, the stranger heaven robbed me of all my beauty, whether of
face or figure. When the arguments set sail for Troy and my dear husband
with them. If you were to return and look after my affairs, I
should be both more respected and I 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,
and to Lichium, Sammy and Zacinthus, 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 the people who
say that they are skilled artisans, but am all the time broken hearted over
Ulysses. They want me to marry again at once, and I have invented
stratagems in order to deceive them. In the first place, Heaven put it
to my mind to set up a great timber 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 and 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 palace will talk if he is laid out without a
pall. This was what I said, and they assented. Whereon 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 out. But as time wore on, and I
was now in my fourth year, in the waning of the moons, and
many days had been accomplished, 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
any 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 a
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 be pained when they have
been exiled 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 Richeans, brave
Etocretans, Dorians of threefold race, and noble Pelaski. There is a great
town there, Gnassus, where Minos reigned, who every nine years had a
conference with Jove himself. Minos was father to Deucalion, whose son I am.
For Deucalion 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 Mollie, and leaving him in Omnisus,
off the cave of Alethua, 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 town and asked for Adomeneus,
claiming to be his old and valued friend. But Idomeneus 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 an
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 hearts 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 possible tales did Ulysses further tell her, And Penelope wept as she
listened, for her heart was melted as the snow wastes upon the mountain tops
when the winds from the southeast and west have breathed upon it, and thought
it till the rivers run bankful 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 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 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
pen. On the face of this there was a device that showed a dog
holding a spotted fawn between his fore paws, and watching 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 to 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, I lay my
saying to your heart that 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 some one 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 sort 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 Euribatees. And Ulysses treated him with greater familiarity than he
did with 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
had laid before her, And when 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 these clothes you speak of. I took them out of
the storeroom and folded them up myself, and I gave him also the gold
brooch to wear his noornament 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 to mansion. 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 is
like a god. Still your tears and listened to what I can tell you.
I will hide nothing from you, and can say with perfect truth that
I have lately heard of Ulysses his being alive and on his way home.
He is among the Thesparotians, 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 Threnassian 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 his ship and was drifted on to the lands of the Phaeacians,
who are 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 can compare with him. Fidon, and king of the
Thesprootians, 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 water
side, and the crew found who would take Ulysses to his own country.
He sent me off first, for there happened to be a Thesprotian ship sailing
for the weak growing island of Delichium. But he showed me all the treasure
Ulysses had got together, and he had enough lying in the house of King
Phadon 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 no whether after so long an absence he should return to Ithaca openly or
in secret, so you may know that 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 is the first and mightiest of the gods, to witness, as
also that hearth 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, in 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 for 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 no longer any such masters in this 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 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 sit 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 not I am superior to
all others of my sex, both in goodness of heart and understanding, if
I let you dine in my cloisters. 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 praises among all the lands, and many shall call him blest.
Ulysses answered, Madam, I have foresworn rugs and blankets from the day
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 an old and
respectable woman who has gone through as much trouble as I have, I will
allow her to wash them. To this penelope, he said, my dear
sir, of all the guests whoever yet came 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 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 lamentations, 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 you've prevented you alone
from ever getting back to your own home. I have no doubt the woman
in some foreign place which Ulysses have got to are giving at him, as
all these slots here have been giving at you. I do not wonder that
you are not choosing to let them wash you after the manner in which they
have insulted you. I will wash your feet gladly enough, as Penelope has
said I am to do so. I shall 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 prey 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 of voice and feet, as you are. Those who
have seen us both answered, Ulysses, I have always said that 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 slag, 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
Ottoleichas, who was the most accomplished thief and perjurer in the whole world,
and with the sons of Autolichas. 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 Ottolichis had
gone to Ithaca and had found the child of his daughter just born. As
soon as he had done his supper, Eurycleia had set the infant upon his
knee and said, Atoleichis, you must find a name for your grandson.
You greatly wished that you might have one son in law and daughter, replied
Ottoleichas, call 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 Atolias, who with
his sons, shook hands with him and gave him welcome. His grandmother Amphithea
threw her arms around him and kissed his head and both his beautiful eyes.
While Atolias desired his sons to get dinner ready, and they did as he
told them. They brought in a five year old bull, flayed it,
and made it ready to divide into joints. These they cut carefully 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 they were all 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 fingered
dawn appeared, the sons of Attolichas went out with their hounds hunting, and
Ulysses went too. They kind 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 Autolychus, among
whom was Ulysses, close behind the dogs, and had a long spear in
his hand. Here was the layer of a huge boar among some thick brushwood.
So thence 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 bang
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 in 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 Autolychus busied themselves with the carcass
of the boar and bound Ulysses wound. Then, after saying a spell to
start the bleeding, they went home as fast as they could. But when
Ottolyichas and his sons had thoroughly healed Ulysses, they made him some splendid presents
and sent him back to Ithaca with much mutual good will. 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 Ottolichus and
his sons on Mount Parnassus. As soon as Euyclia had got the scarred limb
in her hands and had well hold of it, she recognized it and dropped
the foot at once. The leg fell into the bath, which rang out
him was overturned, so that all the water spilt on the ground. Eurycleia's
eyes, between her joy and her grief, filled with tears. 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 Euryclia 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 breast? Now that
after twenty years of wandering, I am at last come to my own house
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 true, that if Heaven grants me to take the lives
of these suitors, I shall not spare you, though you are my own
nurse, when I am killing the other women. My child answered, Euyclia,
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 women in the house who have been ill behaved, and
of those who are guiltless, and Ulysses answered, nurse, you ought 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 the more water,
for the first had been all spilt. And when she had washed his
feet and anointed him with oil, Ulysses drew his seat nearer to the fire
to warm himself, and hid his 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 bed time for those at least
two 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 comes and we all of us
go to bed, I lie awake thinking, and my heart becomes prey to
the most incessant and cruel tortures. As the dun Nightingale, daughter of Pandarius
sings in the early spring from her seat in the shadiest covered head, and
with many a point of trill pours out the tail of how by mishap she
killed her own child to Tylus, son of King Zethas. Even so does
my mind toss in turn in its uncertainty, whether I ought to stay with
my son here and safeguard my substance, my bondsmen, and the greatness of
my house out of regard for public opinion and the memory of my late husband,
or whether it is now time for me to go with the best of
these suitors who are wooing me and making me such magnificent presents. 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 in sense did the way
in which the suitors are eating up his property. Listen then to a dream
I have had, and interpret it for me, if you can. I
have twenty geests about the house that eat mash out of a trough, and
which I am exceedingly fond of. 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 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 to me again,
and, perching on a projecting rafter, spoke to me with a human
voice and told me to leave off crying. Be of good courage. She
said, Daughter of Vicarius, 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 awoke, and when I looked out, I saw my
geese at the eating their mash as usual this dream, Madam replied, Ulysses
can admit but one interpretation, for had not Ulysses himself told you how it
should 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, the other Ivory. Those that come through the gate
of Ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of Horn mean something to
those who see them. I do not think, however, that my own
dreams come 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,
that 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 the most easily and send his arrow through all twelve axes him,
will I follow and quit the 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 return erever they can
string the bow, handle it how they will, and send their arrows through
the iron to this penelope. He said, as long, sir, as
you 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 a 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 Ulysses set out for the city with a hateful name.
She then went upstairs to her own room, not alone, but attended by
her maids, And when there she lamented her dear husband till Minerva shed sweet
sleep over her eyelids. End of book nineteen