The Odyssey Sleep Story, Episode 13: The Bow

Tonight's episode is the one the whole Odyssey has been walking toward. Penelope brings down her husband's great bow after twenty years, and one suitor after another fails to bend it — until the old beggar by the door asks to hold it for a moment. When Odysseus strings it as easily as a musician strings a lyre, the string sings like a swallow, Zeus thunders from a clear sky, and the long homecoming finally turns. Has something you'd almost stopped hoping for ever arrived all at once?

This is a sleep story continuing an abridged narration of Homer's Odyssey, adapted from Samuel Butler's public-domain 1900 translation and told as a bedtime series for adults who want something old, absorbing, and calming to fall asleep to.

Episode 13 covers Books XX, XXI and XXII of the Odyssey. Odysseus lies awake through his last night as a beggar until Athena sends him to sleep, while Penelope weeps upstairs after dreaming her husband lay beside her. At dawn Zeus thunders from a cloudless sky and a tired mill-woman prays that this will be the suitors' last meal. Philoetius the cattle-man arrives and grieves for his absent master, Ctesippus hurls a cow's hoof at the stranger, and the seer Theoclymenus sees the hall running with blood and crowded with ghosts. Then Penelope brings out the bow of Odysseus and sets the contest: string it, and shoot through twelve axes. Telemachus nearly succeeds, the suitors fail one by one, and outside in the yard Odysseus reveals himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius by his scar. Back in the hall, Odysseus strings the bow, sends an arrow through every axe, and turns it on the suitors, with Telemachus, Eumaeus, Philoetius, and Athena at his side.

0:00 Intro

2:50 The Last Sleepless Night

9:20 Thunder From a Clear Sky

12:20 The Cattle-Man

16:55 The Seer's Vision

20:35 The Bow Comes Down

26:20 Twelve Axes in a Row

31:30 The Scar in the Courtyard

38:50 Into the Beggar's Hands

41:30 The Bow Sings

44:35 On the Threshold

54:40 A Swallow in the Rafters

1:02:20 The Hall Made Clean

1:08:15 Sleep Sounds

What's covered in this video:

- Odysseus's sleepless night, Athena's promise, and Penelope's dream that her husband was lying beside her.

- The double omen at dawn: thunder from a clear sky, and the mill-woman's prayer.

- Philoetius the cattle-man's loyalty, Ctesippus's thrown hoof, and Theoclymenus's vision of the doomed hall.

- Penelope bringing down the bow of Iphitus and announcing the contest of the twelve axes.

- Telemachus's attempt, the suitors' failures, and Odysseus revealing himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius by the scar.

- The stringing of the bow, the shot through the axes, and the battle for the hall.

- Athena on the rafters in the form of a swallow, the sparing of Phemius and Medon, and the purification of the house.

Mentioned in this video: Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, Euryclea, Eumaeus, Philoetius, Melanthius, Antinous, Eurymachus, Amphinomus, Ctesippus, Leiodes, Theoclymenus, Phemius, Medon, Iphitus, Athena, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, the bow of Odysseus, the twelve axes, the suitors of Ithaca, Homer's Odyssey, Samuel Butler translation, sleep story, bedtime story for adults, guided sleep narration, Dream With Jacob, Jacob Evans.

Some of what I use for sleep, if you're curious:

Sound machine → https://amzn.to/4b4fWeY

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Humidifier → https://amzn.to/4aBjOE8

Sleep mask + headphones → https://amzn.to/44go88b

Cooling bamboo sheets → https://amzn.to/4eY0ylE

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