Odyssey 4.729 · Book 4, lines 729–731
The reproach: you never woke me
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σχέτλιαι, οὐδʼ ὑμεῖς περ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θέσθε ἑκάστη ἐκ λεχέων μʼ ἀνεγεῖραι, ἐπιστάμεναι σάφα θυμῷ, ὁππότʼ ἐκεῖνος ἔβη κοίλην ἐπὶ νῆα μέλαιναν.
Cruel ones! Not even you, each of you, took it to heart to wake me from my bed, though you knew clearly in your hearts, when he went aboard the hollow black ship.
Word by word
The setting
Penelope turns from her grief to the maids around her. They knew Telemachus was leaving — they helped provision the ship — yet not one of them woke her to stop him or say goodbye.
A note on this passage
The lament sharpens into accusation. "Cruel ones" — the maids are charged not with the leaving but with the silence around it: knowing full well, each of them, they let her sleep while her son slipped down to the black ship. The detail that they knew "clearly, in the heart" makes it a chosen withholding, not mere oversight.
The undercurrent is a household divided against its mistress. Penelope's authority rests on being told things, on the loyalty of those who serve her; here that loyalty was pledged elsewhere — to Telemachus's secrecy. She is discovering that her own women kept a confidence from her, and the discovery cuts as a small domestic betrayal inside the larger one of the suitors.
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