and their mother the gods had slain, and the maidens were left orphans in the halls, and fair Aphrodite cherished them with curds and sweet honey and delicious wine.  And Here gave them beauty and wisdom beyond the lot of women, and holy Artemis dowered them with stature, and Athene taught them skill in all famous handiwork.  Now while fair Aphrodite was wending to high Olympus, to pray that a glad marriage might be accomplished for the maidens,—­and to Zeus she went whose joy is in the thunder, for he knows all things well, what the fates give and deny to mortal men—­in the meanwhile the spirits of the storm snatched away these maidens, and gave them to be handmaids to the hateful Erinyes.  Would that in such wise they that hold the mansions of Olympus would take me from the sight of men, or that fair-stressed Artemis would strike me, that so with a vision of Odysseus before mine eyes I might even pass beneath the dreadful earth, nor ever make a baser man’s delight!  But herein is an evil that may well be borne, namely, when a man weeps all the day long in great sorrow of heart, but sleep takes him in the night, for sleep makes him forgetful of all things, of good and evil, when once it has overshadowed his eyelids.  But as for me, even the dreams that the gods send upon me are evil.  For furthermore, this very night one seemed to lie by my side, in the likeness of my lord, as he was when he went with the host, and then was my heart glad, since methought it was no vain dream but a clear vision at the last.’

So she spake, and anon came the golden throned Dawn.  Now goodly Odysseus caught the voice of her weeping, and then he fell a musing, and it seemed to him that even now she knew him and was standing by his head.  So he took up the mantle and the fleeces whereon he was lying, and set them on a high seat in the hall, and bare out the bull’s hide out of doors and laid it there, and lifting up his hands he prayed to Zeus: 

’Father Zeus, if ye gods of your good will have led me over wet and dry, to mine own country, after ye had plagued me sore, let some one I pray of the folk that are waking show me a word of good omen within, and without let some sign also be revealed to me from Zeus.’

So he spake in prayer, and Zeus, the counsellor, heard him.  Straightway he thundered from shining Olympus, from on high from the place of clouds; and goodly Odysseus was glad.  Moreover a woman, a grinder at the mill, uttered a voice of omen from within the house hard by, where stood the mills of the shepherd of the people.  At these handmills twelve women in all plied their task, making meal of barley and of wheat, the marrow of men.  Now all the others were asleep, for they had ground out their task of grain, but one alone rested not yet, being the weakest of all.  She now stayed her quern and spake a word, a sign to her lord: 

’Father Zeus, who rulest over gods and men, loudly hast thou thundered from the starry sky, yet nowhere is there a cloud to be seen:  this surely is a portent thou art showing to some mortal.  Fulfil now, I pray thee, even to miserable me, the word that I shall speak.  May the wooers, on this day, for the last and latest time make their sweet feasting in the halls of Odysseus!  They that have loosened my knees with cruel toil to grind their barley meal, may they now sup their last!’