talk to me, I can have no desire to go to bed. Still, people cannot dopermanently without sleep, and heaven has appointed us dwellers onearth a time for all things. I will therefore go upstairs andrecline upon that couch which I have never ceased to flood with mytears from the day Ulysses set out for the city with a hateful name."She then went upstairs to her own room, not alone, but attended byher maidens, and when there, she lamented her dear husband tillMinerva shed sweet sleep over her eyelids.BOOK XX.ULYSSES slept in the cloister upon an undressed bullock's hide, onthe top of which he threw several skins of the sheep the suitors hadeaten, and Eurynome threw a cloak over him after he had laid himselfdown. There, then, Ulysses lay wakefully brooding upon the way inwhich he should kill the suitors; and by and by, the women who hadbeen in the habit of misconducting themselves with them, left thehouse giggling and laughing with one another. This made Ulysses veryangry, and he doubted whether to get up and kill every single one ofthem then and there, or to let them sleep one more and last timewith the suitors. His heart growled within him, and as a bitch withpuppies growls and shows her teeth when she sees a stranger, so didhis heart growl with anger at the evil deeds that were being done: buthe beat his breast and said, "Heart, be still, you had worse than thisto bear on the day when the terrible Cyclops ate your bravecompanions; yet you bore it in silence till your cunning got yousafe out of the cave, though you made sure of being killed."Thus he chided with his heart, and checked it into endurance, but hetossed about as one who turns a paunch full of blood and fat infront 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 turnhimself about from side to side, thinking all the time how, singlehanded as he was, he should contrive to kill so large a body of men asthe wicked suitors. But by and by Minerva came down from heaven in thelikeness of a woman, and hovered over his head saying, "My poorunhappy 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 ayoung man as any father may be proud of.""Goddess," answered Ulysses, "all that you have said is true, butI am in some doubt as to how I shall be able to kill these wickedsuitors single handed, seeing what a number of them there alwaysare. And there is this further difficulty, which is still moreconsiderable. Supposing that with Jove's and your assistance I succeedin killing them, I must ask you to consider where I am to escape tofrom their avengers when it is all over.""For shame," replied Minerva, "why, any one else would trust a worseally than myself, even though that ally were only a mortal and lesswise than I am. Am I not a goddess, and have I not protected youthroughout in all your troubles? I tell you plainly that even thoughthere were fifty bands of men surrounding us and eager to kill us, youshould take all their sheep and cattle, and drive them away withyou. 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 toOlympus.While Ulysses was thus yielding himself to a very deep slumberthat eased the burden of his sorrows, his admirable wife awoke, andsitting up in her bed began to cry. When she had relieved herself byweeping she prayed to Diana saying, "Great Goddess Diana, daughterof Jove, drive an arrow into my heart and slay me; or let somewhirlwind snatch me up and bear me through paths of darkness till itdrop me into the mouths of overflowing Oceanus, as it did thedaughters of Pandareus. The daughters of Pandareus lost their fatherand mother, for the gods killed them, so they were left orphans. ButVenus took care of them, and fed them on cheese, honey, and sweetwine. Juno taught them to excel all women in beauty of form andunderstanding; Diana gave them an imposing presence, and Minervaendowed them with every kind of accomplishment; but one day when Venushad gone up to Olympus to see Jove about getting them married (forwell does he know both what shall happen and what not happen toevery one) the storm winds came and spirited them away to becomehandmaids to the dread Erinyes. Even so I wish that the gods wholive in heaven would hide me from mortal sight, or that fair Dianamight strike me, for I would fain go even beneath the sad earth if Imight do so still looking towards Ulysses only, and without havingto yield myself to a worse man than he was. Besides, no matter howmuch people may grieve by day, they can put up with it so long as theycan sleep at night, for when the eyes are closed in slumber peopleforget good and ill alike; whereas my misery haunts me even in mydreams. This very night methought there was one lying by my side whowas like Ulysses as he was when he went away with his host, and Irejoiced, for I believed that it was no dream, but the very truthitself."On this the day broke, but Ulysses heard the sound of her weeping,and it puzzled him, for it seemed as though she already knew him andwas by his side. Then he gathered up the cloak and the fleeces onwhich he had lain, and set them on a seat in the cloister, but he tookthe bullock's hide out into the open. He lifted up his hands toheaven, and prayed, saying "Father Jove, since you have seen fit tobring me over land and sea to my own home after all the afflictionsyou have laid upon me, give me a sign out of the mouth of some oneor other of those who are now waking within the house, and let me haveanother sign of some kind from outside."Thus did he pray. Jove heard his prayer and forthwith thundered highup among the from the splendour of Olympus, and Ulysses was gladwhen he heard it. At the same time within the house, a miller-womanfrom hard by in the mill room lifted up her voice and gave him anothersign. There were twelve miller-women whose business it was to grindwheat and barley which are the staff of life. The others had groundtheir task and had gone to take their rest, but this one had not yetfinished, for she was not so strong as they were, and when she heardthe thunder she stopped grinding and gave the sign to her master."Father Jove," said she, "you who rule over heaven and earth, you havethundered from a clear sky without so much as a cloud in it, andthis means something for somebody; grant the prayer, then, of meyour poor servant who calls upon you, and let this be the very lastday that the suitors dine in the house of Ulysses. They have worn meout with the labour of grinding meal for them, and I hope they maynever have another dinner anywhere at all."Ulysses was glad when he heard the omens conveyed to him by thewoman's speech, and by the thunder, for he knew they meant that heshould avenge himself on the suitors.Then the other maids in the house rose and lit the fire on thehearth; Telemachus also rose and put on his clothes. He girded hissword about his shoulder, bound his sandals on his comely feet, andtook a doughty spear with a point of sharpened bronze; then he went tothe threshold of the cloister and said to Euryclea, "Nurse, did youmake the stranger comfortable both as regards bed and board, or didyou let him shift for himself?- for my mother, good woman though sheis, has a way of paying great attention to second-rate people, andof neglecting others who are in reality much better men.""Do not find fault child," said Euryclea, "when there is no one tofind fault with. The stranger sat and drank his wine as long as heliked: your mother did ask him if he would take any more bread andhe said he would not. When he wanted to go to bed she told theservants to make one for him, but he said he was re such wretchedoutcast that he would not sleep on a bed and under blankets; heinsisted on having an undressed bullock's hide and some sheepskins putfor him in the cloister and I threw a cloak over him myself."Then Telemachus went out of the court to the place where theAchaeans were meeting in assembly; he had his spear in his hand, andhe was not alone, for his two dogs went with him. But Eurycleacalled the maids and said, "Come, wake up; set about sweeping thecloisters and sprinkling them with water to lay the dust; put thecovers on the seats; wipe down the tables, some of you, with a wetsponge; clean out the mixing-jugs and the cups, and for water from thefountain at once; the suitors will be here directly; they will be hereearly, for it is a feast day."Thus did she speak, and they did even as she had said: twenty ofthem went to the fountain for water, and the others set themselvesbusily to work about the house. The men who were in attendance onthe suitors also came up and began chopping firewood. By and by thewomen returned from the fountain, and the swineherd came after themwith the three best pigs he could pick out. These he let feed aboutthe premises, and then he said good-humouredly to Ulysses,"Stranger, are the suitors treating you any better now, or are they asinsolent as ever?""May heaven," answered Ulysses, "requite to them the wickedness withwhich they deal high-handedly in another man's house without any senseof shame."Thus did they converse; meanwhile Melanthius the goatherd came up,for he too was bringing in his best goats for the suitors' dinner; andhe had two shepherds with him. They tied the goats up under thegatehouse, and then Melanthius began gibing at Ulysses. "Are you stillhere, stranger," said he, "to pester people by begging about thehouse? Why can you not go elsewhere? You and I shall not come to anunderstanding before we have given each other a taste of our fists.You beg without any sense of decency: are there not feasts elsewhereamong the Achaeans, as well as here?"Ulysses made no answer, but bowed his head and brooded. Then a thirdman, Philoetius, joined them, who was bringing in a barren heiferand some goats. These were brought over by the boatmen who are thereto take people over when any one comes to them. So Philoetius made hisheifer and his goats secure under the gatehouse, and then went up tothe swineherd. "Who, Swineherd," said he, "is this stranger that islately come here? Is he one of your men? What is his family? Wheredoes he come from? Poor fellow, he looks as if he had been somegreat man, but the gods give sorrow to whom they will- even to kingsif it so pleases themAs he spoke he went up to Ulysses and saluted him with his righthand; "Good day to you, father stranger," said he, "you seem to bevery poorly off now, but I hope you will have better times by andby. Father Jove, of all gods you are the most malicious. We are yourown children, yet you show us no mercy in all our misery andafflictions. A sweat came over me when I saw this man, and my eyesfilled with tears, for he reminds me of Ulysses, who I fear is goingabout in just such rags as this man's are, if indeed he is still amongthe living. If he is already dead and in the house of Hades, then,alas! for my good master, who made me his stockman when I was quiteyoung among the Cephallenians, and now his cattle are countless; noone could have done better with them than I have, for they have bredlike ears of corn; nevertheless I have to keep bringing them in forothers to eat, who take no heed of his son though he is in thehouse, and fear not the wrath of heaven, but are already eager todivide Ulysses' property among them because he has been away solong. I have often thought- only it would not be right while his sonis living- of going off with the cattle to some foreign country; badas this would be, it is still harder to stay here and be ill-treatedabout other people's herds. My position is intolerable, and I shouldlong since have run away and put myself under the protection of some