The old woman laughed as she went upstairs
To tell her mistress that her husband was home.
She ran up the steps, lifting her knees high,
And, bending over Penelope, she said:
| "Wake up, dear child, so you can see for yourself | 5 |
Odysseus has come home, after all this time,
And has killed those men who tried to marry you
And who ravaged your house and bullied your son."
| And Penelope, alert now and wary: | 10 |
"Dear nurse, the gods have driven you crazy.
The gods can make even the wise mad,
Just as they often make the foolish wise.
Now they have wrecked your usually sound mind.
| Why do you mock me and my sorrowful heart, | 15 |
And such a sweet sleep. It sealed my eyelids.
I haven't slept like that since the day Odysseus
Left for Ilion—that accursed city.
| Now go back down to the hall. | 20 |
And wakened me from sleep, I would have
Sent her back with something to be sorry about!
You can thank your old age for this at least."
| And Eurycleia, the loyal nurse: | 25 |
-353-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Odyssey.
Contributors: Homer - Author, Stanley Lombardo - Translator.
Publisher: Hackett Publishing.
Place of publication: Indianapolis.
Publication year: 2000.
Page number: 353.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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