Page 337 - the-odyssey

be proud of.’
‘Goddess,’ answered Ulysses, ‘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 Jove’s
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 Minerva, ‘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 god-
dess, and have I not protected you throughout in all your
troubles? I tell you plainly that even though there were fif-
ty 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.’
As she spoke she shed sleep over his eyes, and then went
back to Olympus.
While Ulysses was thus yielding himself to a very deep
slumber that eased the burden of his sorrows, his admirable
wife awoke, and sitting up in her bed began to cry. When she
had relieved herself by weeping she prayed to Diana saying,
‘Great Goddess Diana, daughter of Jove, drive an arrow into
my heart and slay me; or let some whirlwind snatch me up
and bear me through paths of darkness till it drop me into
the mouths of over-flowing Oceanus, as it did the daugh-
ters of Pandareus. The daughters of Pandareus lost their

The Odyssey