Odyssey 5.491 · Book 5, lines 491–493
Athena sheds sleep (Book 5 ends)
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ὣς Ὀδυσεὺς φύλλοισι καλύψατο· τῷ δʼ ἄρʼ Ἀθήνη ὕπνον ἐπʼ ὄμμασι χεῦʼ, ἵνα μιν παύσειε τάχιστα δυσπονέος καμάτοιο φίλα βλέφαρʼ ἀμφικαλύψας.
So Odysseus covered himself with leaves; and over him Athena shed sleep on his eyes, so that she might quickly release him from his grievous weariness, enfolding his dear eyelids.
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The setting
The simile turns back to its subject. Odysseus hides in the leaves like a banked coal, and the goddess who was kept from him through the storm returns to lay sleep on his eyes. These are the last lines of Book 5.
A note on this passage
Odysseus buries himself in the leaves — the coal banked in ash — and Athena, unbidden, pours sleep over his eyes. She does it to end his exhaustion quickly, closing his eyelids for him. On that gesture the whole book shuts.
The undercurrent is the goddess's return to his side. Athena stood off through the storm, held back while Poseidon had his way; now, the moment the hero is safe ashore, she is there, laying sleep on him like a blanket. Book 5 ends not with rescue by force but with a god's tenderness — the eyes that wept on Calypso's shore closed gently at last.
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