Homer, Odyssey

ToposText · Homer · 2,435 sections

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§ 4.620 So while they said such things to one another, the guests came to the home of the divine king. They brought sheep and carried hearty wine, and their finely-veiled wives sent food with them. So they busied themselves about dinner in the palace
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§ 4.625 while the suitors in front of Odysseus' hall enjoyed themselves throwing with discuses and javelins on leveled flat ground, where they had before, with wanton arrogance. Antinous and godlike Eurymachus were seated, the leaders of the suitors they were far the best in prowess.
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§ 4.630 The son of Phronius, Noemon, came near them, spoke to Antinous, and asked: “ Antinous, do we know it at all in our minds, or don't we, when Telemachus may come from sandy Pylos? He took my ship and left, but I need her
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§ 4.635 to cross over to spacious Elis, where I have twelve horses, females with untamed drudging mules under them, one of whom I'd drive out and tame.” So said he, and in their hearts they wondered, for they hadn't thought he'd gone to Neleian Pylos, but was somewhere
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§ 4.640 on his farm or with the swineherd. Eupeithes' son Antinous said back to him: “Tell me infallibly, when did he go and what young men went with him? Chosen ones of Ithaca, or his own hired hands and slaves? Even he would be able to do that.
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§ 4.645 And tell me this truly, so I know it well, whether he took away your black ship by force against your will or you gave it to him willingly when he implored you.” The son of Phronius, Noemon, said to him in turn: “I gave it to him myself, willingly. What would any other do,
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§ 4.650 when a man like this, with cares in his heart, makes a request? It would be hard to refuse the giving. Young men who are best among us throughout the kingdom went with him. I noticed one getting on board as their leader, Mentor, or a god who looked completely like him.
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§ 4.655 But I wonder about it. I saw divine Mentor here early yesterday, but at that time he'd boarded ship for Pylos.” So saying, he departed to his father's house, and the manly heart in both of them marveled. They had the suitors stop their games and sit down together.
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§ 4.660 Eupeithes' son Antinous spoke among them, grieving. Both sides of his heart were filled black, full of fury, and his eyes were like flashing fire: “Damn it! Yes, a horrible deed has been haughtily done, this journey by Telemachus. We didn't think he'd do it.
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§ 4.665 A young boy goes out on his own, against the will of so many, selects the best throughout the kingdom, and launches a ship. He'll begin to be an even further evil. May Zeus instead destroy his life for him before he reaches the measure of young manhood. But come, give me a swift ship and twenty comrades,
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§ 4.670 so I can watch and wait in ambush for him as he comes in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos, so to his own cost he sails for his father!” So said he, and all concurred and commanded, then got up at once and went into the house of Odysseus.
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§ 4.675 Nor was Penelope for a long time without knowledge of the words the suitors were brooding over in their minds, for a herald told her, Medon, who was outside in the courtyard and heard their plans as they wove their scheme inside. He made his way through the palace to report to Penelope,
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§ 4.680 and as he stepped down from the threshold Penelope said to him: “Why have the illustrious suitors sent you, herald? Was it to tell the slave women of divine Odysseus to stop their work and get dinner ready for them? Neither wooing me nor gathering another time,
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§ 4.685 may they dine here for the last and final time! You who gather often and shear away much substance, the property of skilled Telemachus. Nor did you hear anything from your fathers in the past when you were children, how Odysseus was among your parents,
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§ 4.690 neither doing or saying anything unfair in his kingdom, which is the custom of divine kings, who may hate one mortal and love another, but Odysseus never did a completely wicked thing to any man. But your heart and unseemly deeds are obvious
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§ 4.695 nor is there any thanks for good deeds afterwards.” Medon, endowed with wisdom, said back to her: “Would that this were the greatest evil, my queen, but the suitors are devising another much greater and more grievous. May Cronion not bring it to pass!
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§ 4.700 They intend to kill Telemachus with sharp bronze on his way home. He went after news of his father to sacred Pylos and divine Lacedaemon.” So said he, and right there her knees and dear heart were undone, and for a long time speechlessness took her words from her. Her two eyes
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§ 4.705 were filled with tears, and her rich voice was held in check. A long time later she said to him in answer: “Why is my son gone, herald? There was no need at all for him to board swift-sailing ships, that are horses of the sea for men and make their way upon great water,
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§ 4.710 so not even his name be left among mankind.” Then Medon, endowed with wisdom, answered her: “I don't know whether some god incited him or even if his own heart was spurred to go to Pylos so he could find out about his father, either of his return or whatever fate he met.”
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§ 4.715 So saying, he departed through the house of Odysseus. Heart-destroying grief poured over her, and she could no longer stand to sit upon the seats, though there were many throughout the house, and sat instead upon the threshold of her well-made chamber, weeping pitifully. Her slave women all whimpered around her,
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§ 4.720 all, young and old, who were in the house. Sobbing thickly, Penelope said to them: “Listen, dear ones, for the Olympian has given me sorrows surpassing all who were born and bred along with me, I, who first lost my lion -hearted husband,
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§ 4.725 who excelled among Danaans in all kinds of good qualities, a good man, whose fame is wide throughout Hellas and middle Argos. Now again, windstorms have snatched up my lovable son, without tidings, from our palace, but I heard not of his leaving. Hard-hearted ones, not even one of you put it in your mind
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§ 4.730 to wake me out of bed, though you knew it clearly, when that one went aboard a hollow black ship. For if I'd found out he was pondering this journey, then surely he'd have either stayed, though eager for his way, or left me dead in our palace.
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§ 4.735 But let someone summon old man Dolios, my slave whom my father gave me when I was on my way here and who keeps for me an orchard full of trees, so he can very quickly sit beside Laertes and recount all these things, in the hope he may at last weave some plan in his mind
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§ 4.740 and go out and complain to the people, who are minded to waste away his and godlike Odysseus' progeny.” Dear nurse Eurycleia said back to her: “Dear bride, kill me with ruthless bronze or let me live in your palace, but I won't conceal the story from you.
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§ 4.745 I knew all of this, and gave him all he commanded, food and sweet wine. He took from me a mighty oath, not to tell you before the twelfth day came to be or you yourself missed him and heard of his starting out, so you wouldn't mar your beautiful flesh with weeping.
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§ 4.750 But wash yourself with water, take clean clothes for your flesh, go up into the upper chamber with your handmaid women, and pray to Athena, daughter of Aegis-bearer Zeus, for she might then save him, even from death. And don't trouble a troubled old man. For I don't think
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§ 4.755 the offspring of Arceisiades is wholly hated by the blessed gods, but there'll still be one left, I imagine, who'll hold the high-roofed house and rich fields far away.” So said she, and stilled her weeping, and kept her eyes from weeping. She washed herself with water, took clean clothes for her flesh,
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§ 4.760 went up into the upper chamber with her handmaid women, put barley groats in a basket, and prayed to Athena: “Hear me, Atrytone, child of Aegis-bearer Zeus, if ever for you in his halls adroit Odysseus burned the fatty thighs of ox or sheep,
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§ 4.765 recall this now for me and save my dear son for me. Ward off the suitors in their evil arrogance.” So saying, she ululated, and the goddess heard her prayer. The suitors raised an uproar throughout the shadowy palace. In this way, one of the young men, in wanton arrogance, would say:
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§ 4.770 “Yes, very surely, our much-wooed queen's preparing a wedding for us, but doesn't know at all that murder's prepared for her son.” So one of them would say, but they didn't know how it happened. Now Antinous spoke and said among them: “Possessed ones, refrain from haughty speech,
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§ 4.775 all of it alike, lest someone perhaps also report it inside. But come, let's get up in silence then and carry out our decision that suited all of us just now in our minds.” So saying, he chose the twenty best men and they made their way to the swift ship and sea's shore.
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§ 4.780 First of all they hauled the ship toward the sea's depths, put mast and sails on the black ship, positioned oars in leather oar straps, all in good order, and hoisted the white sail, as their high-spirited cohorts carried their gear for them.
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§ 4.785 They anchored her offshore in the south then went ashore themselves. They had supper there as they waited for evening to come. Back in the upper chamber, prudent Penelope lay fasting, not tasting food and drink, pondering whether her noble son would escape death
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§ 4.790 or be tamed by the haughty suitors. As much as a lion in a crowd of men broods anxiously with fear when they draw their crafty circle around him, that much she was pondering when sweet sleep came upon her. All her joints were relaxed, she leaned back, and slept.
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§ 4.795 Then bright-eyed goddess Athena thought of something else. She created a phantom and in shape it looked like a woman, Iphthime, the daughter of great-hearted Icarius, whom Eumelus, who had a house in Pherae, wed. She sent it to the home of divine Odysseus,
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§ 4.800 to stop the wailing and lamenting Penelope from her weeping and tearful lamentation. It entered the bedroom past the bolt's strap, stood above her head, and said to her: “Are you sleeping, Penelope, your dear heart sorrowing?
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§ 4.805 No, the gods who live easily won't let you grieve and cry, since your son is still to have homecoming, for he's not at all a sinner in gods' eyes.” Then prudent Penelope answered her, as she very sweetly slumbered at the gate of dreams:
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§ 4.810 “Why have you come here, sister? You didn't visit much at all before, since you have a home so very far away. And you bid me cease from my grief and the many sorrows that distress me in my mind and heart, I, who first lost my lion -hearted husband,
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§ 4.815 who excelled among Danaans in all kinds of good qualities, a good man, whose fame is wide throughout Hellas and middle Argos. Now again, my lovable son has gone aboard a hollow ship, a child who knows well neither hard works nor assemblies. I grieve for him even more than for the other.
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§ 4.820 I tremble for him and fear lest he suffer something in the kingdom of those where he's gone or on the sea. For many enemies are plotting against him, eager to kill him before he reaches his fatherland.” The faint phantom said to her in reply:
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§ 4.825 “Take heart, and don't in any way at all fear too much in your mind, for such an escort goes with him, whom even other men would pray to stand beside them, for she has power, Pallas Athena. She feels pity for you in your lamentation. She sent me now to tell these things to you.”
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§ 4.830 Prudent Penelope said back to her: “If then you are a god and have heard the goddess's voice, then come tell me also of that wretched one, whether he's still alive somewhere and sees the light of the sun or is already dead and in the house of Hades.”
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§ 4.835 The faint phantom said to her in reply: “I won't tell you in detail about that one, whether he's dead or alive. It's bad to talk like empty wind.” So saying, it glided past the bolt of the doorpost into gusts of winds. The daughter of Icarius got up
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§ 4.840 from sleep and her dear heart was warmed that a clear dream had sped to her in the gloom of night. The suitors went aboard and sailed on the watery ways, pondering in their minds sheer slaughter for Telemachus. There's a certain rocky island in the middle of the sea,
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§ 4.845 between Ithaca and rugged Samos, not a big one, Asteris, with ship-sheltering harbors on it on each side. The Achaeans waited for him there in ambush.
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§ 5.1 BOOK 5 Dawn, from bed beside illustrious Tithonus, arose to bring light to mortals and immortals. The gods sat down in council, among them Zeus whose power is the greatest.
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§ 5.5 Athena spoke to them, Odysseus' many troubles on her mind, for his being in the nymph's home troubled her: “Father Zeus, and other blessed gods who are forever, Let no sceptered king ever be earnestly gentle and kind, or know justice in his mind,
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§ 5.10 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. But he lies on an island, suffering mighty sorrows in the palace of nymph Calypso, who holds him back
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§ 5.15 by force. He's unable to reach his fatherland, for he hasn't oared ships or comrades at his side to convoy him on the broad back of the sea. Now they intend to kill his lovable son on his way home. He went after news of his father,
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§ 5.20 to sacred Pylos and divine Lacedaemon.” Cloud-gatherer Zeus said to her in reply: “My child, what kind of talk is this that's fled your wall of teeth? Didn't you yourself recommend this plan, that Odysseus surely come and take vengeance on those men?
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§ 5.25 Escort Telemachus skillfully, since you can, so, quite unscathed he gets to his fatherland and the suitors in their ship go back where they came from.” He spoke, then facing Hermes, his beloved son, he said: “ Hermes, since you're our messenger for other things,
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§ 5.30 to the fair-haired nymph clearly speak our will, the return home of steadfast Odysseus, so he may go, without escort of gods or mortal men. Instead, he'll suffer miseries on a well-bound raft and reach fertile Scheria on the twentieth day,
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§ 5.35 the land of the Phaeacians, who are close to the gods, who will honor him exceedingly in their heart like a god, then will send him in a ship to his beloved fatherland, and give him bronze, and gold aplenty, and clothing, lots of it, and Odysseus could never have taken this much from Troy
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§ 5.40 even if he'd gone unharmed and obtained his share of spoils. For it's his lot to see his loved ones and reach his high-roofed house and fatherland.” So said he, and runner Argeiphontes did not disobey him. At once he tied fine sandals underneath his feet,
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§ 5.45 ambrosial, golden ones, that bore him, over water and boundless land, with the breezes of the wind. He raised his wand, with which he enchants the eyes of men, of those he wishes, and wakes up again the sleeping. Mighty Argeiphontes held it in his hands and flew.
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§ 5.50 Stepping on Pieria from the upper air he fell upon the sea, then sped over the waves like a bird, a cormorant, that as it catches fish, down through the deep gulfs of the barren sea, wets its thick feathers in the brine. Like this, Hermes rode the many waves.
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§ 5.55 But when he reached that island, which was far away, then he stepped out of the violet sea upon the land and went until he reached the great cave in which the fair-haired nymph lived. He found her inside. A great fire was burning on the hearth, and the scent
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§ 5.60 of split cedar and pine spread throughout the island as they burned. She was singing in a beautiful voice inside as she plied the loom and wove with a golden shuttle. A luxuriant wood grew around the cave, alder, and aspen, and fragrant cypress.
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§ 5.65 Birds with long wings nested there, owls, and hawks, and long-tongued crows, sea crows, who care about works upon the sea. Right there, around the hollow cave, stretched a vine in youthful vigor blooming with clusters of grapes.
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§ 5.70 Four fountains in a row flowed with white water, next to each other, but turned in different directions. Soft meadows of violet and parsley bloomed about them. Even an immortal, after coming there, would gaze in admiration at what he saw and be delighted in his mind.
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§ 5.75 Runner Argeiphontes stood there and gazed in admiration. Then after he'd gazed at it all with his heart, he went at once into the wide cave, and when she saw him face to face, the goddess divine, Calypso, did not not recognize him, for gods are not unknown to each other
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§ 5.80 as immortals, not even if one lives in a home far away. But he didn't see great-hearted Odysseus inside, since he was sitting on the shore crying, there as before, rending his heart with tears and groans and sorrows, shedding tears as he looked out upon the barren sea.
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§ 5.85 The goddess divine, Calypso, questioned Hermes when she'd seated him in a shiny bright chair: “Why have you come to me, Hermes of the golden wand, venerable and dear one? You haven't often come at all before. Speak whatever's on your mind. My heart orders me do it,
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§ 5.90 if do it I can, and if it can be done. But come further, so I can lay guest fare beside you.” So saying, the goddess set a table beside him, filled it with ambrosia, and mixed red nectar. Then runner Argeiphontes ate and drank.
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§ 5.95 Then after he'd dined and satisfied his appetite with food, right then he said to her in answer: “You ask me, goddess, why a god has come, so I'll tell you the story infallibly, since you bid me. Zeus ordered me to come here, though I didn't want to.
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§ 5.100 Who'd run across so much briny water? It's immense! Nor is there nearby any mortals' city, who offer sacrifices and choice hecatombs to gods. But there's surely no way for another god to transgress or disappoint the mind of Aegis-bearer Zeus.
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§ 5.105 He says the man with you is the most wretched of those others, of the men who battled around Priam's city for nine years, then sacked the city in the tenth, and headed home. But on their return home they sinned against Athena, who roused an evil wind and tall waves against them.
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§ 5.110 All the rest of his good comrades perished there, but wind and waves bore and drove him here. Zeus has ordered that you send him off as soon as possible, for it's not this one's destiny to perish far away from his loved ones, but it's still his lot to see his loved ones and reach
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§ 5.115 his high-roofed house and fatherland.” So said he, then the goddess divine, Calypso, shuddered, and voicing winged words, she said to him: “You are merciless, you gods, jealous beyond others, who resent goddesses that bed beside men
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§ 5.120 openly, if any makes a beloved one her spouse. So, when rose-fingered Dawn took Orion for herself, you gods who live easily resented her until in Ortygia chaste golden-throned Artemis attacked with her painless darts and killed him.
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§ 5.125 So, when fair-haired Demeter yielded to her heart and mixed with Iasion in making love and love in a thrice-plowed fallow field, but not for long was Zeus unhearing of it, who struck him with white lightning and killed him. So again now, gods, you resent me for being with a mortal man,
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§ 5.130 whom I saved when he was sprawled around his keel, alone, after Zeus impeded and split his swift ship with white lightning in the midst of the wine-dark sea. All the rest of his good comrades perished there, but wind and waves bore and drove him here.
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§ 5.135 I loved and cared for him and promised to make him immortal and ageless all his days. But, since there's no way for another god to transgress or disappoint the mind of Aegis-bearer Zeus, let him be gone, if he urges and bids it,
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§ 5.140 upon the barren sea, but I won't convoy him anywhere, for I haven't oared ships or comrades at my side to convoy him on the broad back of the sea, but I'll earnestly advise him, and not conceal it, so, quite unscathed, he'll get to his fatherland.”
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§ 5.145 Runner Argeiphontes said back to her: “Send him off now in this way, and respect the wrath of Zeus, lest he somehow in resentment be hard with you hereafter.” So saying, mighty Argeiphontes departed. The lady nymph went to great-hearted Odysseus
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§ 5.150 after she heard Zeus' message. She found him sitting on the shore, but his eyes were never dry of tears and his sweet lifetime was passing from him as he mourned for his return, since the nymph no longer pleased him. But, yes, he spent the nights, by necessity,
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§ 5.155 in her hollow caves, the unwilling beside the willing, then by day he sat on the rocks and spits, rending his heart with tears and groans and sorrows, shedding tears as he looked out upon the barren sea. The goddess divine stood close by and said to him:
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§ 5.160 “Ill-fated one, mourn here no longer, and don't have your lifetime waste away, for I'll quite sincerely send you off now. But come, cut long timbers with bronze and join them into a wide raft. Then fasten a deck on it, up high, so it can carry you upon the misty sea.
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§ 5.165 Then I'll put food, and water, and red wine in it, in abundance, to keep hunger from you, and dress you in raiment, then send a fair wind behind you, so, quite unscathed, you can reach your fatherland, if the gods who hold wide heaven are willing,
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§ 5.170 who are mightier than I in both intention and fulfillment.” So said she, and long-suffering divine Odysseus shuddered, and voicing winged words, he said to her: “Goddess, you intend this as something else, but not at all a convoy, you who bid me cross upon a raft the great gulf of the sea,
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§ 5.175 dread and grievous, over which swift-sailing balanced ships don't pass, even glorying in a fair wind from Zeus. But I won't set foot on a raft despite you, unless, goddess, you dare to swear a great oath to me, that you won't plan another evil misery for me.”
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§ 5.180 So said he, and the goddess divine, Calypso, smiled, caressed him with her hand, called out his name, and said: “Yes, you're a wicked one, and not unsagacious, to have the wit to speak such talk as this. Let the earth now see this, and wide heaven above,
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§ 5.185 and the flowing water of Styx, who is the greatest and most dread witness to an oath among the blessed gods, that I don't plan another evil misery for you. Instead, I'm thinking of and will advise the things I'd have in mind even for myself, should such a need come upon me.
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§ 5.190 For my mind is righteous, and I myself don't have a heart of iron in my chest, but one of compassion.” So saying, the goddess divine led quickly, and he followed in the footsteps of the goddess. They reached the hollow cave, the goddess and the man,
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§ 5.195 and he then sat upon the chair from which Hermes had arisen, and the nymph laid all kind of food beside hi, to eat and drink, such kinds as mortal men eat. She sat opposite divine Odysseus and her slave women set ambrosia and nectar beside her.
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§ 5.200 They threw their hands on the good things laid ready before them. Then after they'd had their fill of food and drink, the goddess divine, Calypso, was the first of them to speak: “ Zeus -born Laertiades, resourceful Odysseus, Do you wish to go homeward this way, right now,
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§ 5.205 to your beloved fatherland? Then, fare you well, nonetheless. If you only knew in your mind how many sorrows make up your destiny before you reach your fatherland, you'd stay right here with me, guard this home, and be immortal, despite your eagerness to see
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§ 5.210 your wife, whom you long for every day. Surely, I claim I'm no worse than she in either form or stature, since it's no way fitting that mortals vie with immortals in form and appearance.” Adroit Odysseus said to her in reply:
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§ 5.215 “Lady goddess, don't be angry with me for this. I know this all myself very well, because prudent Penelope is weaker than you in appearance and size, when one sees her face to face, for she is mortal, but you're immortal and unaging. But even so, I want and wish for, every day,
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§ 5.220 to go home and see homecoming day. If some god again wrecks me on the wine-dark sea, I'll endure it, with a heart in my chest that endures sorrows, for I've already suffered very many and toiled much in waves and war. Let this also be among them.”
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§ 5.225 So said he, and the sun went down, and dusk came on. The two, going to an inner recess of the hollow cave, stayed by each other's side and delighted in love. When early-born rose-fingered Dawn appeared, Odysseus at once put on his cloak and tunic
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§ 5.230 and the nymph herself put on a great white cloak, delicate and lovely, threw a fine golden girdle around her waist and a veil above her head. Right then she planned the departure of great-hearted Odysseus. She gave him a big axe that fit in his palms,
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§ 5.235 a bronze one, sharpened on both sides, and a handle of gorgeous olivewood was strongly fastened in it. Then she gave him a well-made adze. She led the way to the border of the island, where the tall trees grew, alder and poplar, and where fir was reaching to the sky,
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§ 5.240 dry long ago, very dry, that would float lightly for him. Then after she showed him where the tall trees grew, the goddess divine, Calypso, went to her home, but he started cutting timbers, and took care of his work quickly. He struck down twenty in all, then trimmed them with the bronze,
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§ 5.245 planed them expertly and made them straight to the line. Meanwhile the goddess divine, Calypso, brought augers, and he bored all of them and fit them to each other, then with pegs and cords pounded it together. As wide as some man well skilled in carpentry
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§ 5.250 would mark off the bottom of a wide freighter, just as wide Odysseus made his raft. Setting up the deck, fitting it to the closely-set ribs, he worked, then finished it with long side planks. He made a mast and yardarm that fit in it,
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§ 5.255 then made a steering oar besides so he could steer. He fenced it in throughout with wickerwork of willow to be a defense against the waves, then piled up much wood for himself. Meanwhile the goddess divine, Calypso, brought cloth to make a sail. He fashioned that well too.
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§ 5.260 On it he secured the braces, halyards, and sheets, then he hauled the raft with levers down into the divine sea. It was the fourth day, and everything he had to do was done. Then on the fifth, divine Calypso sent him from the island after she'd bathed him and dressed him in fragrant raiment.
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§ 5.265 The goddess put a leather bag of black wine on board for him, and another one, a big one of water, and provisions too, in a sack in which she put many cooked meats in abundance, and sent forth a fair wind, warm and gentle. Joyful at the fair wind, divine Odysseus spread the sail.

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.