Odyssey Lesson 21
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Last updated about 1 year ago
5 questions
Note from the author:
from “Book 23”
of Homer’s The Odyssey
translated by Robert Fagles
“Dear old nurse,” wary Penelope replied,
“the gods have made you mad. They have that power,
putting lunacy (1) into the clearest head around
or setting a half-wit (2) on the path to sense.
They’ve unhinged you (3), and you were once so sane.
Why do you mock (4) me?—haven’t I wept enough?—
telling such wild stories, interrupting my sleep,
sweet sleep that held me, sealed my eyes just now.
Not once have I slept so soundly since the day
Odysseus sailed away to see that cursed city …
Destroy, I call it—I hate to say its name!
Now down you go. Back to your own quarters.
If any other woman of mine had come to me,
rousing me out of sleep with such a tale,
I’d have her bundled back to her room in pain.
It’s only your old gray head that spares you that!”
1 lunacy: Craziness
2 half-wit: A person with half of his or her senses; a foolish person
3 unhinged you: Thrown you into confusion; made you crazy
4 mock: Ridicule or tease
Homer. “Book 23.” The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin, 1996, pp. 380–381.
from “Book 23”
of Homer’s The Odyssey
translated by Robert Fagles
“Dear old nurse,” wary Penelope replied,
“the gods have made you mad. They have that power,
putting lunacy (1) into the clearest head around
or setting a half-wit (2) on the path to sense.
They’ve unhinged you (3), and you were once so sane.
Why do you mock (4) me?—haven’t I wept enough?—
telling such wild stories, interrupting my sleep,
sweet sleep that held me, sealed my eyes just now.
Not once have I slept so soundly since the day
Odysseus sailed away to see that cursed city …
Destroy, I call it—I hate to say its name!
Now down you go. Back to your own quarters.
If any other woman of mine had come to me,
rousing me out of sleep with such a tale,
I’d have her bundled back to her room in pain.
It’s only your old gray head that spares you that!”
1 lunacy: Craziness
2 half-wit: A person with half of his or her senses; a foolish person
3 unhinged you: Thrown you into confusion; made you crazy
4 mock: Ridicule or tease
Homer. “Book 23.” The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin, 1996, pp. 380–381.
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