Summary

Chapter 37, "Gaia", introduces Gaia, the ‘Great Mother, born from Chaos, the first of the gods’ and goddess of the earth (276). She hears a war being fought somewhere, and she knows her pleas have been answered. Long ago, Gaia witnessed a great war: the Titanomachy, when the Titans were defeated by the Olympians and imprisoned forever. After that conflict, she had never believed she would ‘yearn for another war. But now she yearned’ (276). Humanity has spread too far, in too great numbers, and demanded too much of her. But fortunately her grandson Zeus ‘would not let her pain go unanswered’ (277). And while she would mourn those who were lost in the coming conflict, she was now ‘so tired’ (278). Nevertheless, she asks humanity’s forgiveness for what is to come.

In Chapter 38, "Penelope", Penelope writes again to Odysseus despite the strong possibility that he is...