When Odysseus is disguised as an old beggar, brought to his home in Ithaca by Eumaeus, his loyal swineherd, the suitors force him into a fight with another local beggar, Irus. One way in which Odysseus shows hospitality to Irus, his opponent in the match, is that he doesn't kill him. This might sound like an odd way to define hospitality to a present-day reader; however, Odysseus and Irus have been pitted against each other by the suitors, and the suitors have said that whichever of them wins the fight gets to eat. Odysseus is still the master of this house, even if no one is aware that he is home, and he shows Irus hospitality by merely knocking him out instead of killing him. Athena has filled out Odysseus's muscles, making him even more powerful, and yet he restrains himself and allows the old man to live.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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