Odyssey 4.751 · Book 4, lines 751–753
The nurse turns grief to prayer
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Eurycleia — εἰς ὑπερῷʼ ἀναβᾶσα σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισι γυναιξὶν εὔχεʼ Ἀθηναίῃ κούρῃ Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο· ἡ γάρ κέν μιν ἔπειτα καὶ ἐκ θανάτοιο σαώσαι.
Go up to your upper chamber with your handmaid women and pray to Athena, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus; for she could then save him even from death.
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The setting
Penelope has collapsed on learning that the suitors mean to ambush her son at sea. Her old nurse Eurycleia, who kept the secret of Telemachus's voyage, is speaking — steadying her with instructions and hope.
A note on this passage
The old nurse, having confessed that she knew of Telemachus's voyage, now tells Penelope what to do with her fear: climb to the upper room with her women and pray to Athena. Grief is turned into an act. The nurse cannot promise safety, only that the goddess could grant it — even from death.
There is a quiet irony the household cannot see. Penelope prays to Athena as a distant hope, but Athena is already the acting force behind Telemachus's journey, the patron who launched it. The prayer reaches its target before it is spoken; the human characters petition a goddess who is not deliberating but already at work.
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