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,