And Penelope answered, “Stranger, dreams are very curious and unaccountable things, and they do not by any means invariably come true.  There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies proceed; the one is of horn, and the other ivory.  Those that come through the gate of ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of horn mean something to those that see them.  I do not think, however, that my own dream came through the gate of horn, though I and my son should be most thankful if it proves to have done so.  Furthermore I say—­and lay my saying to your heart—­the coming dawn will usher in the ill-omened day that is to sever me from the house of Ulysses, for I am about to hold a tournament of axes.  My husband used to set up twelve axes in the court, one in front of the other, like the stays upon which a ship is built; he would then go back from them and shoot an arrow through the whole twelve.  I shall make the suitors try to do the same thing, and whichever of them can string the bow most easily, and send his arrow through all the twelve axes, him will I follow, and quit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly and so abounding in wealth.  But even so, I doubt not that I shall remember it in my dreams.”

Then Ulysses answered, “Madam, wife of Ulysses, you need not defer your tournament, for Ulysses will return ere ever they can string the bow, handle it how they will, and send their arrows through the iron.”

To this Penelope said, “As long, sir, as you will sit here and talk to me, I can have no desire to go to bed.  Still, people cannot do permanently without sleep, and heaven has appointed us dwellers on earth a time for all things.  I will therefore go upstairs and recline upon that couch which I have never ceased to flood with my tears 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 by her maidens, and when there, she lamented her dear husband till Minerva shed sweet sleep over her eyelids.

Book XX

Ulysses cannot sleep—­Penelope’s prayer to Diana—­the two signs
from heaven—­Eumaeus and Philoetius arrive—­the suitors
dine—­Ctesippus throws an ox’s foot at Ulysses—­Theoclymenus
foretells disaster and leaves the house.

Ulysses slept in the cloister upon an undressed bullock’s hide, on the top of which he threw several skins of the sheep the suitors had eaten, and Eurynome {156} threw a cloak over him after he had laid himself down.  There, then, Ulysses lay wakefully brooding upon the way in which he should kill the suitors; and by and by, the women who had been in the habit of misconducting themselves with them, left the house giggling and