This having done, the gracious power withdrew, 2

While from the palace came the white-armed maids,

And prattled as they came. The balmy sleep

Forsook their mistress at the sound. She passed

Her hands across her cheeks, and thus she spake :—
“’T was a sweet sleep that, in my wretchedness, «ss

Wrapped me just now. Would that, this very hour,

The chaste Diana by so soft a death

Might end me, that my days might be no more

Consumed in sorrow for a husband lost,

Of peerless worth, the noblest of the Greeks.” τῷ
She spake, and from the royal bower went down,

Yet not alone; two maidens went with her.
And when that most august of womankind

Drew near the suitors, at the door she stopped

Of that magnificent hall, and o’er her cheeks ss

Let fall the lustrous veil, while on each side

A modest maiden stood. The suitors all

Felt their knees tremble, and were sick with love,


124 The Odyssey.
