Homer, Odyssey

ToposText · Homer · 2,435 sections

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§ 2.55 but they come and go every day to our house, and slaughter our cattle and fat goats and sheep, and drink our sparkling wine in revelry with reckless abandon. These many things are wasted, for there's no man here, such as Odysseus used to be, to keep this curse from our house.
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§ 2.60 We're not, in any way, such as to ward it off. Yes, in that case we'll be pitiful, not even trained in martial prowess. Yes, I'd ward it off myself, if the power were in me, for deeds bearable no longer have been done, and more unfairly, my house has been destroyed. You yourselves should be indignant too,
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§ 2.65 and be ashamed before the other neighbor men who live around you and cower in dread of the gods' wrath, lest they in some way turn in anger to punish evil deeds. I beg you, by both Olympian Zeus and Themis, who both seats and breaks up men's assemblies,
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§ 2.70 check them, friends, and let me be afflicted by wretched sadness by myself, unless by chance in some way my good father, Odysseus, in ill will did evil to the well-greaved Achaeans, for whom you take revenge on me and in ill will do me evil by urging on those men. It would be better for me
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§ 2.75 that you yourselves eat both my treasures and my herds. If you were to eat them, there'd sometime soon be compensation too, for we'd accost you throughout the city with words, demanding our possessions until all were given back, but now you cast impossible pains upon me!”
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§ 2.80 So said he in anger and threw the scepter to the ground, breaking out in tears. Sympathy seized each and every man. Then all the rest were silent, and none dared answer Telemachus with harsh words, but only Antinous said to him in answer:
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§ 2.85 “ Telemachus, you blowhard, unrestrained in fury, what kind of thing you've said, defaming us, as you wished to fasten blame. But the Achaean suitors aren't at all at fault regarding you, but your beloved mother is, who exceedingly knows wiles. For it's the third year already, and the fourth is coming soon,
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§ 2.90 since she's wronged the heart in the Achaeans' chests. She offers hope to all, and makes promises to each man, sending messages, but her mind is intent on other things. In her mind she devised this other trick. She set up a great web in the palace, delicate and long-threaded,
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§ 2.95 started to weave, then soon said among us:'Young men, my suitors, since Odysseus has died, wait, though eager for my wedding, until I can complete this cloth, lest my weaving be ruined and in vain, a burial cloth for hero Laertes, for the time when
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§ 2.100 baneful doom, of death that brings long woe, takes him down, lest any Achaean woman throughout the kingdom resent me, should he who won many things lie without a shroud.' So said she, and our manly spirit yielded in turn. Then by day she wove her great web,
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§ 2.105 but at night, when she had torches placed beside it, she unraveled it. Three years she went unnoticed in her trick, and so persuaded the Achaeans, but when a fourth year came, and seasons came round, right at that time, one of her women who knew it clearly told us, and we discovered her unraveling the splendid web.
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§ 2.110 So, she finished it, albeit unwillingly, under compulsion. The suitors answer you this way, so you yourself know it in your heart, and all Achaeans know. Send away your mother, and order her to marry whomever her father bids her, who also pleases her.
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§ 2.115 But if she annoys the son of the Achaeans much longer, though she knows in her heart what Athena has given her exceedingly, skill in making gorgeous works, a good disposition, and cunning wiles, such as none we've ever heard of, not even of the ancients, who were fair-haired Achaean women of old,
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§ 2.120 Tyro, Alcmene, and fair-crowned Mycene, none of whom knew thoughts like those of Penelope, but in this, at least, she has not rightly thought. For they'll therefore eat your substance and possessions as long as that one holds to this idea, that certain one the gods
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§ 2.125 place in her chest now. She makes great fame for herself, but the loss of much substance for you, and we won't go back, either to our fields or anywhere else, until she gets married to the Achaean she wishes.” Astute Telemachus said back to him in turn:
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§ 2.130 “ Antinous, it's not possible to drive away unwilling from our home she who bore me, who raised me. My father, whether he's alive or dead, is somewhere else on earth. It would be bad, for me to pay much back to Icarius, if I myself of my free will sent my mother back. For I'll suffer evils from her father, and a divinity will give me others,
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§ 2.135 after my mother has prayed to the loathsome Furies when she leaves our house. There'll be righteous anger for me from men. So, I'll never speak this command to her. If your heart feels indignation at your own conduct, leave my palace. Find other meals
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§ 2.140 and eat your own possessions, as you take turns at your houses. But if this seems to you more desirable and better, to destroy one man's substance without compensation, then consume it. I'll cry out to the everlasting gods, that Zeus somehow grant that there be deeds of requital,
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§ 2.145 then, without compensation, inside this house you'll perish!” So said Telemachus, and far-seeing Zeus sent two eagles for him from on high, flying from a mountain peak. The two flew a while with the breezes of the wind, with outstretched wings, next to each other,
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§ 2.150 but when they reached the middle of the loud-voiced assembly, they whirled around, flapping their thick wings, then came toward the heads of all, and foreboded destruction. Tearing about with their talons at their cheeks and throats, they shot off to the right, across the homes and city of the men.
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§ 2.155 They were astounded at the birds when they saw them with their eyes, and pondered in their heart just what was going to happen. And among them spoke an old man, the hero Halitherses Mastorides, for he uniquely surpassed those of his generation in understanding birds and explaining omens.
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§ 2.160 With good intent, he spoke and said to them: “Hear me now, Ithacans, hear what I say! I speak mostly to the suitors when I declare these things, since great trouble rolls toward them, for Odysseus will not long be far from his loved ones, instead, he's likely near
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§ 2.165 already, planting death and doom for all of them. There'll be evil too, for many others of us who live in clear Ithaca. So, long before then let's consider how we can stop them. But let them rather stop themselves, for right now that is even better for them.
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§ 2.170 For I don't prophesy unproven, but I know it well. For I say to him that each and every thing has been fulfilled, as I told him when the Argives went up into Ilium and resourceful Odysseus went with them. I said that after he suffered many evils and lost all his comrades
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§ 2.175 he'd come home in the twentieth year, unbeknown to all. All this is now coming to pass.” Eurymachus, the son of Polybus, said back to him in turn: “Come on, old man, go home and prophesy to your children, lest they by chance suffer any evil in the future.
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§ 2.180 I'm much better than you in prophesying this. Many birds go to and fro beneath the bright rays of the sun, but not all are ominous. Odysseus, though, has perished far away, and how I wish that you had perished with him! You wouldn't speak so many oracles,
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§ 2.185 nor incite Telemachus this way in his anger, looking to get a gift for your house, if he'll give one. But I'll speak out to you, and it'll be fulfilled too. If you, knowing things ancient and many, advise a younger man and spur him on with words to be violently angry,
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§ 2.190 first, for him himself it will be more distressing, but all the same, he won't be able to do anything because of them, and on you, old man, we'll set a penalty that you'll be grieved at heart to pay and hard will be your sorrow. I myself, among you all, admonish Telemachus.
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§ 2.195 Let him order his mother go back to her father's. They'll arrange the wedding and assemble many bride gifts, just as many as should follow a dear daughter. For I don't think the sons of the Achaeans will cease from grievous wooing beforehand, since we fear no one, at any rate
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§ 2.200 not Telemachus, though he's very full of words, nor do we care about an oracle that you, old man, may tell of, that won't happen, as you become hated still more. His possessions will still be cruelly eaten, and things will never be equal as long as she puts off the Achaeans
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§ 2.205 from her marriage and we in expectation vie every day for the sake of her excellence and don't go after others whom it's suitable for each of us to marry.” Astute Telemachus said back to him in turn: “ Eurymachus, and the rest of you illustrious suitors,
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§ 2.210 I no longer beg you and speak of these things, for the gods and all Achaeans know them already. But come, give me a swift ship and twenty comrades to take me on a voyage there and back. For I'm going to Sparta and sandy Pylos,
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§ 2.215 to inquire about the return of my father, so long on his way. Perhaps some mortal may tell me or I'll hear a rumor from Zeus, which very often carries news to men. If I hear of my father's survival and return, yes, though I'd be impoverished, I'd still hold out a year,
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§ 2.220 but if I hear he's dead and no longer alive, I'd then return to my beloved fatherland, pile up a barrow for him on which to pay his last rights, as many, very many, as are fitting, and give my mother to a husband.” So saying, he sat down, and up among them rose
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§ 2.225 Mentor, who was a noble comrade of Odysseus, and to whom, when he went in his ships, he handed his entire house, that it obey the old man and that Mentor preserve everything intact. With good intent he spoke and said among them: “Hear me now, Ithacans, hear what I say!
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§ 2.230 Let no sceptered king ever be earnestly gentle and kind or know justice in his mind, but may he always be hard and do injustice, seeing that none of the people whom he ruled remembers godlike Odysseus, who was kind as a father to them.
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§ 2.235 But in truth I don't at all begrudge the manly suitors their doing deeds of violence in the evil scheming of their mind, for they place at risk their own heads and violently devour the house of Odysseus, whom they say returns no more. Now I hold it against the rest of the kingdom, how all of you sit
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§ 2.240 in silence and don't with words in any way accost the few suitors and restrain them, many as you are.” Leocritos Eunorides said to him in turn: “ Mentor, mischief maker, crazed in mind, what a thing you've said, urging them to stop us. It's difficult
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§ 2.245 to battle with more men than you about a feast. For if even Ithacan Odysseus himself came, eager in his heart to drive from his hall the illustrious suitors who are dining in his home, his wife, despite her great longing, would have no joy
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§ 2.250 at his coming, but right where he was he'd meet unseemly fate if he battled with a greater number. You have not duly spoken. But come, people, scatter, each one to his fields, then Mentor and Halitherses will speed this one on his journey, who are comrades of his father from the start.
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§ 2.255 But I think he'll sit quite a long time, learning things from messages in Ithaca, but he'll never make that journey!” So said he, and immediately broke up the assembly. Then while they scattered, each to his own house, the suitors went to the house of godlike Odysseus.
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§ 2.260 Telemachus went far off to the sea's shore, washed his hands in the gray water, and prayed to Athena: “Hear me, you who came yesterday to our house as a god, and bid me go in a ship upon the misty sea, to find out about the return of my father, long on his way.
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§ 2.265 But the Achaeans hinder me in all of this, especially the suitors, evilly wanton in their arrogance!” So said he in prayer, and Athena came near him, disguised as Mentor both in form and voice, and voicing winged words, she said to him:
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§ 2.270 “ Telemachus, you'll be neither a coward nor a dolt hereafter, if your father's spirit is well instilled in you, such a man was he in fulfilling word and deed, then your journey will be neither in vain nor without result. But if you're not the offspring of him and of Penelope,
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§ 2.275 then I don't suppose you'll accomplish what you mean to. For few sons are truly like their father. A few are better than their father; the majority are worse. But since you'll be neither a coward nor a dolt hereafter, and the shrewdness of Odysseus has not completely failed you,
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§ 2.280 then there's hope you'll accomplish these deeds. “So, let the plan and purpose of the senseless suitors be, since they're not at all thoughtful or just and know nothing of the death and black doom that's near them, that they'll all perish in a day.
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§ 2.285 You won't much longer be without the journey that you're bent on, for I'm surely such a comrade of your father that I'll equip a swift ship for you and come along myself. But, you, go home and mingle with the suitors, prepare provisions, and store them all in containers,
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§ 2.290 wine in two-handled jugs and men's marrow, barley, in thick leather bags. I'll go through the kingdom and quickly gather comrades, volunteers. There are many ships in sea-girt Ithaca, new ones and old. I'll look at them for you, for the one that's best,
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§ 2.295 then we'll quickly stow things and launch her on the wide sea.” So said the daughter of Zeus, Athena, and Telemachus delayed no longer when he heard the goddess's voice. He made his way to his house, his dear heart sorrowing, and found the manly suitors in his palace
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§ 2.300 flaying goats and singeing hogs in the courtyard. With a laugh, Antinous went straight for Telemachus, put his hand in his, called out his name, and said: “ Telemachus, you blowhard, unrestrained in fury, don't let any other evil, either word or deed, concern you in your chest,
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§ 2.305 but eat and drink with me, as we used to before. The Achaeans will very fully make these things happen for you, a ship and chosen oarsmen, so you can the more quickly go to sacred Pylos after news of your illustrious father.” Astute Telemachus said back to him in turn:
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§ 2.310 “ Antinous, it's no way possible to dine in silence and make merry at my ease among you haughty ones. Suitors, isn't it enough that in the past you wasted my possessions, good and many, when I was still a child? Now, when I'm big, and learn by listening to the words
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§ 2.315 of others, and my temper grows inside me, I'll try to loose the evil spirit of death upon you, either by going to Pylos or in this kingdom here. I'm going, and the trip I speak of won't be without result, as a passenger, for I don't have at my disposal oarsmen
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§ 2.320 or a ship, as no doubt seemed better to you.” He spoke and drew his hand easily from the hand of Antinous, as throughout the house the suitors worked at getting dinner ready. They taunted and mocked him with their words, and one of the wantonly arrogant young men kept saying so:
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§ 2.325 “Very surely, Telemachus plans murder for us. Either he'll bring some supporters from sandy Pylos or even from Sparta, since he's so grimly eager for it, or he wants to go to Ephyre, the rich farmland, so he can bring life-destroying drugs from there,
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§ 2.330 to throw them in the mixing bowl and destroy us all!” Another of the wantonly arrogant young men kept saying back: “Who knows? If he himself goes on a hollow ship far from his loved ones, he too may wander and perish, just like Odysseus. That way he'd make our hard work even harder,
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§ 2.335 for we'd have to divide his possessions and give his house back to his mother, and whoever marries her, to have.” So said they, and Telemachus went down to the high-roofed chamber of his father, the wide one where gold and bronze lay piled, and clothing in chests, and fragrant olive oil in abundance.
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§ 2.340 Jars of vintage wine, sweet to drink, stood in there, holding the unmixed divine drink inside, fastened in rows against the wall, in case Odysseus should ever return home even after suffering many sorrows. There was a double door that could be fastened tightly to close it,
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§ 2.345 a doubly-folding one, and a housekeeper woman stayed in it night and day, who guarded everything with the wisdom of her mind, Eurycleia, the daughter of Ops Peisenorides. Telemachus then called toward the chamber and said to her: “Madam, come, draw wine for me into two-handled jars,
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§ 2.350 sweet wine, the best tasting after that which you guard with that ill-fated one in mind, in hope he'll come from somewhere, Zeus -born Odysseus, escaping death's spirits and death. Fill twelve, and fit each and every one with covers, then pour barley for me into well-stitched leather bags,
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§ 2.355 and let there be twenty measures of mill-ground barley meal. But only you must know. Let all this be brought together, for I'll pick it up this evening when my mother goes to her upper chamber and has her mind on bed. For I'm going to Sparta and sandy Pylos, to inquire
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§ 2.360 about the return of my dear father, in hope I'll hear of it somewhere.” So said he, and dear nurse Eurycleia shrieked and spoke winged words to him in lamentation: “Dear child, why has this thought come into your mind? Where on the wide earth do you want to go,
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§ 2.365 alone and beloved as you are? He perished far from his fatherland, Zeus -born Odysseus, in a foreign kingdom. They'll devise evils for you, as soon as you go, for later, so you'll be killed by guile and they'll divide all of this themselves. Sit right here upon your own things instead. There's no need at all
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§ 2.370 that you wander the barren sea and suffer evils!” Astute Telemachus said back to her in turn: “Take heart, madam, since this plan of mine is not without a god's approval. But swear to not tell these things to my dear mother at least until the eleventh or the twelfth day comes
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§ 2.375 or she misses me and hears that I've departed, so she won't mar her fair flesh with weeping.” So said he, and the old woman swore a great oath on the gods. Then after she'd sworn and completed the oath, she then at once drew wine for him into jars with two handles
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§ 2.380 and poured barley groats for him into well-stitched leather bags. Telemachus now went into the house and joined the suitors. Then bright-eyed goddess Athena thought of something else. Disguised as Telemachus, she went throughout the city, everywhere, and to each man she stood beside she spoke a word,
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§ 2.385 and ordered them to gather at the swift ship in the evening. Then she asked Noemon, the brilliant son of Phronius, for a swift ship, and he in earnest promised it to her. And the sun went down, and all the ways were dark. Right then she hauled the swift ship to the sea and stowed
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§ 2.390 in it all the gear that well-benched ships carry. She moored it at the edge of the harbor, then the good comrades gathered together around her, and the goddess spurred each on. Then bright-eyed goddess Athena thought of something else and made her way to the home of godlike Odysseus.
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§ 2.395 There she poured sweet sleep upon the suitors, dazed them as they drank and knocked cups from their hands. They got up to go to sleep throughout the city and didn't stay seated much longer, once sleep fell upon their eyelids. Then bright-eyed Athena said to Telemachus,
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§ 2.400 when she called him out of his well-placed palace, disguised as Mentor both in form and voice: “ Telemachus, your well-greaved comrades sit already at their oars and await your signal to start, so let's go, let's not long delay our journey!”
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§ 2.405 So saying, Pallas Athena led quickly and he followed in the footsteps of the goddess. Then after they'd gone down to the ship and sea, they then found their hairy-headed comrades on the shore. The sacred force of Telemachus spoke among them:
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§ 2.410 “Come, friends, let's fetch our provisions, for they're all already gathered in my hall and my mother knows nothing of it, nor do the rest of the slave women, but only one has heard my word.” So saying, he led, and they followed with him. They fetched everything and stowed it
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§ 2.415 on the well-benched ship, as Odysseus' dear son ordered. As Telemachus went aboard the ship, Athena led and sat down in the ship's stern, then Telemachus sat near her. They freed the stern cables, then went aboard and sat down at the oarlocks.
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§ 2.420 Bright-eyed Athena sent them a favorable fair wind, steady West Wind, blustering over the wine-dark sea. Telemachus urged his comrades on and bid them secure the rigging. They heard his urging, raised the fir mast, set it inside the hollow mast box,
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§ 2.425 tied it down with the forestays, and hoisted the white sail with the well-twisted ox -leather halyards. The wind swelled out the middle of the sail, the waves splashed loudly about the prow of the ship as she went on her way, and she sped through the waves and completed her voyage.
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§ 2.430 When they'd secured the rigging throughout the swift black ship, they set up mixing bowls filled to the brim with wine and made libation to the immortal everlasting gods, but most of all to Zeus's bright-eyed daughter. She cleaved her way all night and through the dawn.
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§ 3.1 BOOK 3 Leaving the gorgeous surface of the sea, the sun rose into the coppery sky to shine for immortals and mortal men upon grain-giving farmland. They'd now reached Pylos, the well-built citadel
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§ 3.5 of Neleus. On the sea's shore some were making sacrifice of pitch-black bulls to the dark-haired Earthshaker. There were nine companies, and five hundred sat in each, and at each place they had nine bulls before them. While these tasted the entrails and burned the thighs to the god,
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§ 3.10 they made straight in, raised and furled the balanced ship's sail, moored her, and went ashore themselves. Telemachus stepped from the ship, and Athena led him. Bright-eyed goddess Athena spoke to him first: “ Telemachus, you need no longer feel bashful, not a bit,
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§ 3.15 for you've sailed upon the sea just for this, to find out about your father, where the earth covered him and what fate he met. But come now, go straight to Nestor, the tamer of horses. Let's see what counsel he has hidden in his chest. Entreat him yourself, so he'll speak infallibly.
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§ 3.20 Since he's very astute, he will not tell a lie.” Astute Telemachus said back to her in turn: “ Mentor, how should I go to him, how should I greet him? I've never had any experience with cunning words, and it's disgraceful for a young man to interrogate his elder.”
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§ 3.25 Bright-eyed goddess Athena said back to him: “ Telemachus, you'll figure out some of this yourself, in your own mind, and a divinity will advise you on the rest, for, no, I don't think that you were born and raised against the will of the gods.” So saying, Pallas Athena led
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§ 3.30 quickly, and he followed in the footsteps of the goddess. They came to a gathering and companies of men of Pylos. Nestor sat there with his sons, as his comrades about him were preparing a feast, roasting some meat and spitting the rest. When they saw the strangers, they came all together,
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§ 3.35 took their hands in greeting and bid them to sit down. Peisistratus Nestorides came close first, took each one's hand, and seated them at the feast on soft fleeces on the sea's sand, beside his brother Thrasymedes and his father.
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§ 3.40 He gave them portions of the entrails, poured wine into a golden goblet, and toasting her, said to Pallas Athena, daughter of Aegis-bearer Zeus: “Pray now to lord Poseidon, stranger, for it's his feast that you've come upon in coming here.
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§ 3.45 Then once you've prayed and made libation, as is the custom, then give the goblet of honey-sweet wine to that one to make libation, since I think he also prays to the immortals. All men need the gods. Since he's younger, the same age as I myself,
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§ 3.50 I'll therefore give you the golden chalice first.” So saying, he put the goblet of sweet wine in her hand and Athena rejoiced at the astute man, the just one, because he'd given her the chalice first. She immediately prayed hard to lord Poseidon:
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§ 3.55 “Listen, Earthshaker Poseidon, and don't begrudge those of us who pray for them the doing of these deeds. First of all, to Nestor and his sons, grant glory, then to the rest, grant graceful recompense, to each and every Pylian, for their glorious hecatomb.
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§ 3.60 Further, grant that Telemachus and I go home, having done that which we came here, in a swift black ship, to do.” So she then prayed, while she herself was making it all happen. She gave Telemachus the fine double-handled goblet so the dear son of Odysseus could pray in the same way.
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§ 3.65 After they'd roasted the outer meats and pulled them off, they divided the portions and dined at a glorious feast. Then after they'd dispatched desire for food and drink, Gerenian horseman Nestor was the first of them to speak: “It's now more fitting to inquire and ask
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§ 3.70 the strangers who they are, since they've enjoyed their food. Who are you, strangers? From where did you sail the watery ways? On some business, or did you roam at random, even as pirates over the sea, who roam and risk their lives and bring evil to foreigners?”
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§ 3.75 Astute Telemachus said back to him in turn, emboldened, for Athena herself had put courage in his heart so he would ask about his absent father and so he'd have good repute among men: “ Nestor Neleides, great glory of Achaeans,
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§ 3.80 you ask where we're from, and I'll tell you. We've come from Ithaca, under mount Neion. This business that I speak of is my own, not the kingdom's. I'm after the wide rumor of my father, in hope I'll hear somewhere of divine Odysseus, the steadfast one, whom they say
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§ 3.85 fought along with you and sacked the Trojans' city once upon a time. For we've heard of all the other ones, all who warred with Trojans, where each perished in wretched destruction, but of that one Cronion has made unknown even his destruction. For no one can tell us clearly where he died,
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§ 3.90 whether he was tamed by hostile men on land or even on the sea among the waves of Amphitrite. I've come to your knees because of this, in hope you'd be willing to tell of his wretched destruction, if perhaps you saw it with your eyes or heard a story from another
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§ 3.95 of his wandering, for his mother bore him to be unhappy beyond others. Don't, out of respect, soften your words in any way and don't pity me, but tell me well how you got sight of him. I beg you, if ever my father, good Odysseus, promised and fulfilled either any word or deed
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§ 3.100 in the Trojan kingdom, where you Achaeans suffered sorrows, recall them for me now and tell me infallibly.” Then Gerenian horseman Nestor answered him: “Friend, since you remind me of the sorrow we endured in that kingdom, we sons of the Achaeans, irresistible in fury,
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§ 3.105 all the things, when we roamed upon the misty sea with our ships, wherever Achilles led us, and all the things, when we fought around lord Priam's great city, how many of the best men were killed there then! There lies warlike Ajax; there, Achilles;
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§ 3.110 there, Patroclus, a counselor equal to the gods; there, my beloved son, both noble and mighty, Antilochus, swift in running beyond others and a warrior. We suffered many other evils besides these. What mortal man could tell them all?
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§ 3.115 Not even if you stayed here five years or even six and asked how many evils the divine Achaeans suffered there, until you'd be vexed and go to your fatherland. For nine years we plotted evils for them and busied ourselves with all kinds of stratagems, and Cronion at last brought them to pass.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by James E. Huddleston (1952-2007). Composed ca. 700 BCE. Licence: under copyright, reusable for non-commercial purposes. Source.