Book IV · A Dream of Reassurance · Scene 4 of 4

Penelope Wakes; Ambush Set

Penelope wakes as ship waits at Asteris

The phantom vanishes into the wind
Its plain words comfort her waking heart
Suitors still intend murder at sea
Asteris offers a harbor with two entrances

Who is here

Penelope Faithful, delaying queen
The Suitors Wooers eating the house bare
Icarius Penelope's father, urged to remarry her
Telemachus Odysseus' son, coming of age
Ithaca Odysseus' rugged island kingdom
Samos Wooded isle across the strait
The Achaians The Greek host of the Troy war

The text

82She said, and from the chamber glided forth
Beside the bolt, and mingled with the winds.
Then quickly from her couch of sleep arose
The daughter of Icarius, for her heart
Was glad, so plainly had the dream conveyed
Its message in the stillness of the night.

83Meanwhile the suitors on their ocean-path
Went in their galley, plotting cruelly
To slay Telemachus. A rocky isle
Far in the middle sea, between the coast
Of Ithaca and craggy Samos, lies,
Named Asteris; of narrow bounds, yet there
A sheltered haven is to which two straits
Give entrance. There the Achaians lay in wait.

Homer, The Odyssey, translated by William Cullen Bryant, 1871. Public domain.