The Odyssey

awesome one, Persephone

“My dears, heaven has been pleased to try me with more affliction than any other woman of my age and country.

poor creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished,

some way of taking my revenge and cove

Then, having done all this, think it well over in your mind how, by fair means or foul, you may kill these suitors in your own house.

No cries of triumph now.
It’s unholy to glory over the bodies of the dead.

Destroy, I call it —I hate to say its name!

whatever form and feature I had, what praise I’d won,
the deathless gods destroyed that day the Achaeans
sailed away to Troy, my husband in their ships,
Odysseus

she enticed
and won our battle-hardened spirits over.
And there we sat at ease,
day in, day out, till a year had run its course,

Circe —
how could any man in his right mind endure
the taste of food and drink before he’d freed
his comrades-in-arms and looked them in the eyes?
If you, you really want me to eat and drink,
set them free, all my beloved comrades —
let me feast my eyes.