Odyssey Quotes

Quotes—Books 1-12

1. But those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotos, never cared to report, nor to return: they longed to stay forever, browsing on the native bloom, forgetful of their homeland. I drove them, all three wailing, to the ships, tied them down under their rowing benches, and called the rest: ‘All hands aboard; come, clear the beach and no one taste the Lotos, or you lose your hope of home.
2. Come, in fairness, tell me the name you bore in that far country; how were you known to family, and neighbors? No man is nameless…Tell me your native land, your coast and city – sailing directions for the ships…
3. O Kyklops! Would you feast on my companions? Puny, am I, in a Caveman’s hands? How do you like the bating that we gave you, you damned cannibal? Eater of guests under your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you!
4. Friend, let me put it in the plainest way. My mother says I am his son; I know not surely. Who has known his own engendering? I wish at least I had some happy man as father, growing old in his own house – but unknown death and silence are the fate of him that, since you ask, they call my father.
5. I fed him, loved him, sang that he should not die nor grow old, ever, in all the days to come. But now there’s no eluding Zeus’ will. If this thing be ordained by him I say so be it let the man strike out alone on the vast water. Surely I cannot ‘send’ him. I have no long oared ships, no company to pull him n the broad back of the sea. My counsel he shall have and nothing hidden to help him homeward without harm.
6. If he’s alive, and beating his way home, I might hold out another year; but if they tell me that he’s dead and gone, then I can come back to my own dear country and raise a mound for him, and burn his gear, with all the funeral honors that befit him and give my mother to another husband. (Book Two)
7. Little one, could you take me to the house of that Alkinoos, king among these people? You see, I am a poor old stranger here; my home is far away; here there is no one known to me, in countryside or city.
8. Mentor, how can I do it, how approach him? I have no practice in elaborate speeches, and for a young man to interrogate an old man seems disrespectful.
9. Must you have battle in your heart forever? The bloody toil of combat? Old contender, will you not yield to the immortal gods? That nightmare cannot die, being eternal evil itself – horror, and pain, and chaos; there is no fighting her, no power can fight her, all that avails is flight.
10. My dear child, I can have no fears for you, no doubt about your conduct or your heart, if, at your age, the gods are your companions. Here we had someone from Olympos—clearly the glorious daughter of Zeus, his third child, who held your father dear among the Argives. O, Lady, hear me! Grant an illustrious name to me and to my children and my dear wife! A noble heifer shall be yours in sacrifice, one that no man has ever yoked of driven; my gift to you—her horns all sheathed in gold.
11. Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy.
12. Skillful as were the men of Phaiakia in ship handling at sea, so were these women skilled at the loom, having this lovely craft and artistry as talents from Athena.
13. That was uncalled for, friend, you talk like a fool. The gods deal out no gift, this one or any – birth, brains, or speech – to every man alike. In looks a man may be a shade, a specter, and yet be master of speech so crowned with beauty that people gaze at him with pleasure.
14. Think how, when you have turned your back, these men will plot to kill you and share all your things! Stay with your own, dear, do. Why should you suffer hardship and homelessness on the wild sea?
15. Though as for death, of course all men must suffer it: the gods may love a man, but they can’t help him when cold death comes to lay him on his bier.
16. Who quarrels with his host? Only a madman - or no man at all- would challenge his protector among strangers, cutting the ground away under his feet..
17. You want to shame us, and humiliate us, but you should know the suitors are not to blame—it is your own dear, incomparably cunning mother. For three years now—and it will soon bee four—she had been breaking the hearts of the Akhians, holding out all hope to all, and sending promises to each man privately—but thinking otherwise.
18. But if your hearts are capable of shame,/Leave my great hall, and take your dinner elsewhere,/Consume your own stores. Turn and turn about,/Use one another’s houses. If you choose/To slaughter one man’s livestock and pay nothing,/This is rapine; and by the eternal gods/I beg Zeus you shall get what you deserve:/A slaughter here, and nothing paid for it!
19. Then I addressed the blurred and breathless dead,/Vowing to slaughter my best heifer for them/Before she calved, at home in Ithaka,/An burn the choice bits on the alter fire;/As for Teiresias, I swore to sacrifice/A black lamb, handsomest of all our flock. /Thus to assuage the nations of the dead /I pledged these rites, then slashed the lamb and ewe.