There’s Nothing Like a Good Night’s Sleep

 

 There’s Nothing Like a Good Night’s Sleep 

Of all things there is an abundance, of sleep and love and sweet song and goodly dance. Man would rather have his fill of these things rather than war. 

Very early in the Iliad, King Agamemnon reluctantly sent Odysseus to return the fair-cheeked Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo. The Ithacan hero did as he was instructed and when the day was done and the celebrations with the father and his daughter were finished, he and his crew took their rest. Homer’s report of their doing so gave rise to two of my favourite visual images in his works: 

When the sun went down and darkness had arisen, they all fell asleep near the stern of the ship. When rosy-fingered dawn appeared, they weighed anchor and sailed toward the army of the Achaeans. 

            Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey frequently reference sleep as a vital and irresistible force and an escape from war and sorrow - sleep took hold of him and sweetly washed away the cares from his heart, for his limbs were sore and tired from chasing Hector in windy Ilios. Sometimes sleep is presented as just the calm conclusion to a satisfying day. Even the gods are seen to take their rest, as witnessed at the end of their feast on Mount Olympus. 

When the bright light of the sun went down, they all wanted to rest and each went to his own home. Hephaestus, the highly skilled lame craftsman, fashioned for each of them a resting place. Zeus, the god of Olympus lightning, went to his own bed where he usually slept. Before sleep came upon him, he lay down beside Hera of the golden throne.

But we are told in the next line that sleep did not come to Zeus, because he wrestled in his mind all night long how he could bring honour to Achilles and destruction to the ships of the Achaeans. Agamemnon, on the other hand, was sleeping soundly as a dream approached him in the guise of Nestor in the dark of night. Homer’s image is one of poetic beauty and we often find that he is at his artistic best when he describes sleep and its effects on mortals and immortals alike.

Thus he spoke and the dream went forward immediately when it heard his command. It flew quickly toward the swift ships of the Achaeans and approached Agamemnon son of Atreus. When it reached him, it found him sleeping in his tent as the divine nectar of slumber had been poured over him.

Agamemnon may have been fast asleep when his dream messenger arrived, but he was told in no uncertain terms that spending the night in slumber was not fitting for a true leader!

It is not befitting that a man of such wise counsel to whom the people have been entrusted and for whom so many things are important, should spend the whole night in sleep.

Homer often referred to the gift of sleep and called it sweet sleep, most of the time within the context of sleep offering relief from pain, grief, fear or the exhaustion of war. Men are said to have been overcome by sweet sleep. Then the son of Peleus came away from the side of the funeral pyre and lay down all weary and tasted sweet sleep.

Pale fear seized hold of them and from their goblets they poured out wine onto the ground and no one dared take a drink before making a libation to the great son of Cronos. They lay down then and took upon themselves the gift of sleep.

Warriors may take their well-deserved sleep at the end of the day but we are told that though they are fast asleep, they are ready to leap into action and to resume the fighting.

Then they came to Diomedes the son of Tydeus and found him outside his tent with his armour with all his comrades sleeping around him with their shields under their heads and their spears stuck in the ground by their sharp spikes and the bronze of their spears shone brightly from afar like the lightning of father Zeus.

We took our evening meal among the ranks and each man lay down to sleep by the rushing river, still clad in his battle armour.

While warriors slept in their encampment, those on night sentry duty made sure to keep a watchful eye out for the approach of the enemy. Next to a display of cowardice, falling asleep while on lookout duty was a most serious offence.

They gathered together with the company of the watchmen and found that they had kept their post and had not fallen asleep, but all were there ready with their arms. Just like the dogs who keep painful watch over the sheep in the fold when they hear the stout-hearted wild beast coming across the plain and a great noise arises of men and dogs and drives away sleep from them, in the same way did sweet sleep leave their eyelids as they kept watch against evil throughout the night for they kept watching toward the plain to see if the Trojans were advancing. When he saw them, the old man rejoiced and welcomed them and spoke to them with winged words. “Even now, continue to keep watch my dear children and do not let sleep overcome any man, lest we become a source of rejoicing for our enemies.”

But there were other times when the sweet relief of sleep did not come - At the same time, Menelaus was trembling with fear and his eyelids had not been overcome by sleep. Agamemnon was likewise kept awake at times - I turn aside because sleep does not come to me and I worry about the war and the distress of the Achaeans.

Homer often associated sleep with death and made reference to the twin brother deities, Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos). He talked about the father of the gods using the scales to weigh the destinies of long-sleeping death, a sleep without end. Later in the Iliad, Zeus told Apollo how to treat the body of the slain Sarpedon and to turn him over to the twins, Sleep and Death.

When the sun had reached the middle of the sky, then indeed the father raised up his golden scales and in them he placed the destinies of long-sleeping death for the horse-rearing Trojans and the bronze-armoured Achaeans. He grasped the scales in the middle but the deadly fate of the Achaeans dipped low. The fate of the Achaeans sank to the bounteous earth, whereas that of the Trojans ascended to the wide heaven.

And then to Apollo spoke Zeus the cloud-gatherer. “Get up now my beloved bright one and having taken Sarpedon far away out of missile range, cleanse him of the black blood and wash him in the waters of the stream and anoint him with ambrosia and clothe him with immortal garments and give him to the swift guardians, the twins Sleep and Death, who will bear him quickly to the rich land of broad Lycia and there his brothers and kinsmen will give him a solemn burial and raise over him a memorial of stone, as is the duty owed to the deceased.”

In addition to describing its great restorative powers, Homer also showed us that sleep could be used as a weapon. Hera hatched a plan to entice Zeus into her bed so that he would fall asleep after a bout of passion and thereby be out of commission while her beloved Achaeans got the upper hand over the Trojans. Hera asked Hypnos, the brother of Thanatos, to assist her in her scheme, but he was reluctant to agree. He finally gave in to her request when she promised him Pasithea, the youngest one of the Graces, as a reward and Sleep stopped the eyes of Zeus.

The best plan came to her mind, namely that she should go to Mount Ida and get herself beautifully ready so he might desire to take her to bed and to make passionate love to her, so that afterwards a warm and peaceful sleep would come over his eyelids and his cunning mind.

There she met Sleep, the brother of Death and she took him by the hand and spoke to him. “Sleep, lord of all gods and all men, if ever you listened to a word of mine in the past, let me persuade you now and I will think of you gracefully all the days of my life. Put to sleep the bright eyes of Zeus beneath his brows as soon as I lay down beside him in affection.”

Then in answer to her spoke sweet Sleep, “Honourable Hera, daughter of great Cronos, another of the great gods that I might lull to sleep even if it were the streams of the river Oceanus from which they all spring forth, but to Zeus I will not come near nor lull to sleep unless he bids me to do so.”

Then the father slept without moving on the top of Gargarus, overcome with slumber and affection in the arms of his wife. Sweet Sleep went running to the ships of the Achaeans to bear a message to the earth-mover earth-shaker. When he squeezed up near to him, he spoke these winged words. “With a forward mind now Poseidon, render aid to the Danaans and give them glory forthwith for Zeus is asleep for a little while for over him have I cast a soft slumber. Hera has beguiled him to her bed to make love.”

Homer included sleep as an integral part of the events portrayed in the Odyssey. Sleep was often shown by the bard to be both a welcome and restorative escape, as seen in the case of Penelope mourning her missing husband and again later when Telemachus was away from home, or when Odysseus fell asleep on his ship.

She went back to her chamber, seized with bewilderment for she was conscious in her heart of the wise words of her son. She went to the upper part of her house with her handmaidens and mourned for her dear husband Odysseus until such time as the bright-eyed Athena cast sweet sleep over her.

But the wise Penelope stayed in her upper chamber, took no food and fasted from eating and drinking, wondering all the while whether her peerless son would escape death or be done in by the insolent suitors. Even as a lion is afraid and worried when among a throng of people who draw a trap around him, so too did she worry when finally sweet sleep came upon her. She lay back and slept and all her joints relaxed.

Sleep came over the eyelids of Odysseus, a sweet pleasant undisturbed sleep that was almost like death.

Sleep came upon him loosening the cares of his heart, limb-relaxing sleep.

The goddess Athena frequently used sleep for her own purposes and unlike in the Iliad, Homer does not reference the god Hypnos in the second epic. Athena delivered sleep to the suitors as well as to the weary Odysseus, as was the case when he landed on the shores of the Phaeacians. And Athena brought sleep upon his eyes that it might overcome his eyelids and quickly free him from his tiring toils. Later he told King Alcinous that he had slept most of the day. The sun was verging towards afternoon when sweet sleep released me. In addition to the goddess Athena, Hermes is also seen as the bringer of sleep in the Odyssey.

Then again the flashing-eyed goddess Athena formed another plan and went to the house of the godlike Odysseus. There she spread sweet sleep over the suitors, overcame them with drink and caused the drinking goblets to fall from their hands. They got up to go to their rest throughout the city and did not stay back long for sleep was descending on their eyelids.

In his hand he took his wand that he uses to put to sleep those whom he will and others whom he awakens from slumber. With this in his hand, the slayer of Argus flew onwards.

He held a beautiful golden wand in his hands with which he lulls the eyes of some into sleep, whomever he wills, and others he wakens from their sleep.

While visiting Sparta, Telemachus asked Menelaus for a place to sleep. But come now and send us to our beds so that we may be lulled by sweet sleep, be rested and be gladdened. In Pylos, Nestor made it very clear that providing a guest with a place to sleep was a vital part of the practice of Xenia or guest-friendship and would not allow Telemachus and his friends to go back to their ship to sleep.

“Zeus and the other immortal gods would forbid that you go to your swift ship from my house as if you were leaving someone who was needy and without clothing and did not have enough cloaks or blankets in his house for himself and his guest-friends to sleep in soft comfort. Surely no dear son of the man Odysseus would ever lie down to sleep on the half-deck of a ship as long as I live and as long as I have children still in my home to entertain strangers and whoever comes to my house.”

Odysseus was able to turn sleep to his advantage while confined in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus. He encouraged the monster to drink copious amounts of wine and finally he was overcome with sleep. While he was passed out, the hero and his remaining crew blinded the sleeping giant.

Thus he spoke and he reeled backwards and fell on his back and he lay there with his thick neck slanted and the sleep that conquers all overcame him.

When he returned to Ithaca, Odysseus stayed at the home of his loyal swineherd and friend Eumaeus, although he did not at first reveal his true identity to his servant. True to the spirit of Xenia, Eumaeus offered his guest both nourishment and a place to sleep, as well as a welcoming ear for his stories.

These nights are exceedingly long. There is a time for sleeping and there is a time for listening to stories, but you do not have to lie down before you are ready to do so, for there can be distress in too much sleep.

Thus he spoke and then he stood up and made up a bed for him near the fire and covered it with the hides of sheep and goats. And there Odysseus lay down to sleep and over him he spread a big thick cloak that he kept around as a change of clothing in case a big storm should come up. And there Odysseus slept and the young men slept beside him. But the swineherd was not content to sleep there and went outside so that he could be nearer to the boars.

            Penelope made Odysseus welcome in her home, though he was disguised as a dreadful beggar. She listened carefully to his stories but finally told him that sleep was essential for her, both for her strength as well as a way to escape her sorrows.

Then the prudent Penelope answered him. “If you were willing to sit with me stranger and give me comfort within these halls, then sleep would never pour over my eyelids. But there is no way that mankind can go without sleep forever, for there is a time granted for everything upon the earth, the giver of grain. But I will go now into my upper chamber and lie upon my bed which has become for me a bed of sorrows and always wet with my tears, since the day that Odysseus went to evil Ilios, a name that should never be uttered. I will lie down there but you take your rest here in the house where you have strewn your bedding, or let the maids set up a bed for you.”

Having spoken thus, she went up to her bright upper chamber, not alone for she had her handmaidens with her. There she mourned for Odysseus, her dear husband, until such time as the flashing-eyed Athena cast pleasant sleep upon her eyelids.

            But we all know how the story ends. Odysseus killed all the suitors and was restored to his kingship. He and Penelope fall into each other’s arms and make love once more in their marital bed, carved from the olive tree. Sleep will be their reward.

But come now, wife, and let us go to bed so that lulled by sweet sleep, we might take our rest.

Then Zeus-fostered Odysseus described the many woes that he had inflicted on men and all the lamentable evils that he had suffered and she was gladdened to hear his stories and sweet sleep did not fall upon her eyelids before he had had a chance to recount all his tales to her.

Finally he was finished his story and sweet sleep came upon him, the kind of sleep that loosens the limbs of men and it loosened the cares of his heart.

            Homer portrays sleep as a multifaceted force. In the Iliad it is seen as an active divine power that influences the outcome of the Trojan War. In the Odyssey, on the other hand, it is more of a narrative tool that represents both the vulnerability of mortals as well as a way of providing them with restorative relief as a physiological necessity. A major difference between the two epics is found in how sleep is personified in each work. In the Iliad, Hypnos or Sleep is presented as a separate and distinct character, the twin brother of Death or Thanatos. Such is not the case in the Odyssey. In the second epic, sleep is not personified, but is instead a force that is divinely delivered by either the goddess Athena or the god Hermes. This is indeed a distinctive difference and is likely another tick in the column for separate authorship.