Free The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood Page B

interfering old biddy Eurycleia confessed that she alone had aided and abetted him. The only reason the two of them hadn’t told me, she said, was that they hadn’t wanted meto fret. But all would come out fine in the end, she added, because the gods were just.
    I refrained from saying I’d seen scant evidence of that so far.
    When things get too dismal, and after I’ve done as much weeping as possible without turning myself into a pond, I have always – fortunately – been able to go to sleep. And when I sleep, I dream. I had a whole run of dreams that night, dreams that have not been recorded, for I never told them to a living soul. In one, Odysseus was having his head bashed in and his brains eaten by the Cyclops; in another, he was leaping into the water from his ship and swimming towards the Sirens, who were singing with ravishing sweetness, just like my maids, but were already stretching out their birds’ claws to tear him apart; in yet another, he was making love with a beautiful goddess, and enjoying it very much. Then the goddess turned into Helen; she was looking at me over the bare shoulder of my husband with a malicious little smirk. This last was such anightmare that it woke me up, and I prayed that it was a false dream sent from the cave of Morpheus through the gate of ivory, not a true one sent through the gate of horn.
    I went back to sleep, and at last managed a comforting dream. This one I did relate; perhaps you have heard of it. My sister Iphthime – who was so much older than I was that I hardly knew her, and who had married and moved far away – came into my room and stood by my bed, and told me she had been sent by Athene herself, because the gods didn’t want me to suffer. Her message was that Telemachus would return safely.
    But when I questioned her about Odysseus – was he alive or dead? – she refused to answer, and slipped away.
    So much for the gods not wanting me to suffer. They all tease. I might as well have been a stray dog, pelted with stones or with its tail set alight for their amusement. Not the fat and bones of animals, but our suffering, is what they love to savour.

xvii
The Chorus Line: Dreamboats, A Ballad
    Sleep is the only rest we get;
    It’s then we are at peace:
    We do not have to mop the floor
    And wipe away the grease.
    We are not chased around the hall
    And tumbled in the dirt
    By every dimwit nobleman
    Who wants a slice of skirt.
    And when we sleep we like to dream;
    We dream we are at sea,
    We sail the waves in golden boats,
    So happy, clean and free.

    In dreams we all are beautiful
    In glossy crimson dresses;
    We sleep with every man we love,
    We shower them with kisses.
    They fill our days with feasting,
    We fill their nights with song,
    We take them in our golden boats
    And drift the whole year long.
    And all is mirth and kindness,
    There are no tears of pain;
    For our decrees are merciful
    Throughout our golden reign.
    But then the morning wakes us up:
    Once more we toil and slave,
    And hoist our skirts at their command
    For every prick and knave.

xviii
News of Helen
    Telemachus avoided the ambush set for him, more by good luck than good planning, and reached home in safety. I welcomed him with tears of joy, and so did all the maids. I am sorry to say that my only son and I then had a big fight.
    ‘You have the brains of a newt!’ I raged. ‘How dare you take one of the boats and go off like that, without even asking permission? You’re barely more than a child! You have no experience at commanding a ship! You could have been killed fifty times over, and then what would your father have to say when he gets home? Of course it would be all my fault for not keeping a better eye on you!’ and so on.
    It was not the right line to take. Telemachus got up on his high horse. He denied that he was a child any longer, and proclaimed his manhood – he’dcome back, hadn’t he, which was proof enough that he’d known what he was doing. Then he defied my