Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 20. PENELOPE DREAMS, by HOMER


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THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 20. PENELOPE DREAMS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: But when her heart had had its fill of weeping
Last Line: But good odysseus heard her as she wept.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical


BUT when her heart had had its fill of weeping,
To Artemis first that star of women prayed:
'Dread goddess Artemis, thou maid of Zeus,
Would that this very hour thou mightest fix
Thine arrow in my breast and take my life!
Or else I would a storm might snatch me up
And sweep me headlong down the murky ways,
And cast me forth into the outgoings
Of backward-flowing Ocean; as when once
The storm-winds bore Pandareus' daughters off.
The gods had slain their parents, and at home
Were they left orphaned; Aphrodite fair
Stayed them with curds and honey and sweet wine,
And Here gave them over all their kind
Wisdom and beauty, and white Artemis
Made them grow stately, and Athene trained them
To mastery of noble crafts. But while
Fair Aphrodite was upon her way
To high Olympus to implore the crown
Of happy marriage for the maids (she went
To Zeus the thunder-lord, for well he knows
All things -- the happiness and haplessness
Alike of mortal men), in that same hour
The spirits of the storm bore off the girls
And gave them to the horrible Avengers
To serve them. Even so I would that they
Who have Olympus for their habitation
Would blot me out, or fair-haired Artemis
Would smite me, so that dreaming on Odysseus
I might depart, yea, 'neath the hateful earth,
Nor ever make a meaner man's heart glad!
Ah well, a tolerable woe hath he,
Whoever weeps all day with heart sore vexed,
But falls asleep o' nights; for sleep makes us
Forget all things, both good and bad, when once
It folds the eyelids. But to me the god
Sends evil dreams as well: for this same night
I dreamt there lay beside me one like him,
Such as he was when with the host he went;
And then my heart rejoiced, because I thought it
A gleam of truth at last, and not a dream.'
E'en as she spoke, came Dawn the golden-throned.
But good Odysseus heard her as she wept.





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