Odysseus slept in the room upon an
undressed bullock's hide, on the top of which he threw several
skins of the sheep the suitors had eaten, and Eurynome threw a cloak
over him after he had laid himself down. There, then, Odysseus lay
wakefully brooding upon the way in which he should kill the suitors;
and by and by, the women who had been in the habit of misconducting
themselves with them, left the house giggling and laughing with one
another. This made Odysseus very angry, and he doubted whether to get
up and kill every single one of them then and there, or to let them
sleep one more and last time with the suitors. His heart growled
within him, and as a bitch with puppies growls and shows her teeth
when she sees a stranger, so did his heart growl with anger at the
evil deeds that were being done: but he beat his breast and said,
"Heart, be still, you had worse than this to bear on the day when the
terrible Cyclops ate your brave companions; yet you bore it in
silence till your cunning got you safe out of the cave, though you
made sure of being killed."
Thus he chided with his heart, and
checked it into endurance, but he tossed about as one who turns a
paunch full of blood and fat in front of a hot fire, doing it first
on one side and then on the other, that he may get it cooked as soon
as possible, even so did he turn himself about from side to side,
thinking all the time how, single handed as he was, he should
contrive to kill so large a body of men as the wicked suitors. But by
and by Athena came down from heaven in the likeness of a woman, and
hovered over his head saying, "My poor unhappy man, why do you lie
awake in this way? This is your house: your wife is safe inside it,
and so is your son who is just such a young man as any father may be
proud of."
"Goddess," answered Odysseus, "all
that you have said is true, but I am in some doubt as to how I shall
be able to kill these wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a
number of them there always are. And there is this further
difficulty, which is still more considerable. Supposing that with
Zeus’ and your assistance I succeed in killing them, I must ask
you to consider where I am to escape to from their avengers when it
is all over."
"For shame," replied Athena, "why,
any one else would trust a worse ally than myself, even though that
ally were only a mortal and less wise than I am. Am I not a goddess,
and have I not protected you throughout in all your ordeals
[ponos]? I tell you plainly that even though there
were fifty bands of men surrounding us and eager to kill us, you
should take all their sheep and cattle, and drive them away with you.
But go to sleep; it is a very bad thing to lie awake all night, and
you shall be out of your troubles before long."
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