Page 338 - the-odyssey

father and mother, for the gods killed them, so they were
left orphans. But Venus took care of them, and fed them on
cheese, honey, and sweet wine. Juno taught them to excel all
women in beauty of form and understanding; Diana gave
them an imposing presence, and Minerva endowed them
with every kind of accomplishment; but one day when Ve-
nus had gone up to Olympus to see Jove about getting them
married (for well does he know both what shall happen and
what not happen to every one) the storm winds came and
spirited them away to become handmaids to the dread Er-
inyes. Even so I wish that the gods who live in heaven would
hide me from mortal sight, or that fair Diana might strike
me, for I would fain go even beneath the sad earth if I might
do so still looking towards Ulysses only, and without hav-
ing to yield myself to a worse man than he was. Besides, no
matter how much people may grieve by day, they can put
up with it so long as they can sleep at night, for when the
eyes are closed in slumber people forget good and ill alike;
whereas my misery haunts me even in my dreams. This very
night methought there was one lying by my side who was
like Ulysses as he was when he went away with his host, and
I rejoiced, for I believed that it was no dream, but the very
truth itself.’
On this the day broke, but Ulysses heard the sound of her
weeping, and it puzzled him, for it seemed as though she al-
ready knew him and was by his side. Then he gathered up
the cloak and the fleeces on which he had lain, and set them
on a seat in the cloister, but he took the bullock’s hide out
into the open. He lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed,