_Thus did he speak, and with knees and with heart all quaking she stood there. Speechless long she remained, struck mute, while gathering teardrops Flooded her eyes, and the flow of her clear-voiced utterance failed, Till at the last she recovered her speech and addressed him in answer: “Wherefore, herald, I pray, is my son departed? He nowise Needed to mount on a ship—on a swift-paced vessel that sailors Ride as a horse and traverse the watery waste of the ocean. Wills he that even his name no longer remain in remembrance?”_[8] Penelope is overwhelmed with grief, and Medon’s explanation of her son’s errand does not soothe her. She believes that he is lost to her for ever, like his father; and when the herald has left her, she throws herself down upon the floor of her room, wailing: “_... sorrow hath Zeus the Olympian sent me Passing the sorrows of all the friends and the mates of my childhood. Erstwhile lost I a husband—my lord with the heart of a lion.... Now is my dearly belovèd, my son, swept hence by the storm-blasts, Vanished from hearing and home.... Had I but known he was making him ready to fare on a journey, Verily either at home he had stay’d, though bent on departure, Else he had left me behind him dead in the halls of his homestead._“[8] She casts about in her mind as to how she may save her son; and it seems to her best to send a trusty messenger to the father of Odysseus, for help and counsel. But the old nurse Euryclea gives good advice. She confesses that she had known of the departure of Telemachus; but he had sworn her with a great oath not to reveal it. It is of no use to mourn about it; and since they can do nothing to bring him back, the better way is to go and supplicate their guardian goddess, Athena, the Maid of Zeus, for his safety. For her part, she believes that Telemachus will not be forsaken in his need. Penelope wisely takes the advice of the old nurse. She bathes, puts on clean raiment, and taking in her hand an offering of barley-flour, she ascends to her own chamber and makes supplication to Athena: “_Hearken to my prayer this hour,_ “_Thou who hast thunder-bearing Zeus for Sire, Maiden whose might no labour can out-tire! If ever subtle-souled Odysseus here Within these halls consumed upon the fire_ “_Fat thigh-pieces of ox or sheep to thee, Remember it this day for good to me, And save my son, and from us thrust away The suitors in their evil surquedry._” _Calling aloud so spake she, and her call The goddess heard._[7] [Illustration: PENELOPE _Patten Wilson_ ]