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Literature of the Western World
The Odyssey- Quotes
33
Literature
Undergraduate 2
03/12/2014

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Term
But my heart breaks for Odysseus, That seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long- Far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments Off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the seas... Oympian _______ have you no care for him in your lofty heart? Did he never win your favor with sacrifices Burned beside the ships on the braod plain of Troy? Why, ________, so dead set against Odysseus?
Definition

Speaker: Anthena

Spoken To: Zeus

Term
Fit out a ship with twenty oars, the best in sight, Sail in quest of news of your long-lost father. Someone may tell you something Or you may catch a rumor straight from Zeus... You must not cling to your noyhood any longer- It's time you were a man. Havent' you heard What glory Prince Orestes won throughout the world When he killed that cunning, murderous Aegisthus, Who'd killed the famous father?
Definition

Speaker: Athena

Spoken To: Telemachus

Term

Courage, mother. Harden your heart, and listen Odysseus was scarcely the only one, you know, Whose journey home was blotted out at Troy. Others, so many others dies there too. So mother, go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks, The distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well. As for giving orders, men will see to that, but I most of all: I hold the reins of power in this house.

 

Definition

Speaker: Telemachus

Spoken To: Penelope

 

Term
Courage, old woman, There's a god who made this plan. But swear you won't say anything to my mother. Not till ten or a dozen days have passed Or she misses me herself and learns I'm gone. She mustn't mar her lovely face with tears.
Definition

Speaker: Telemachus

Spoken to: Eurycleia (the old maid)

Term
Dear boy- never fear you'll be a coward or defenseless, Not if at your young age the gods will guard you so. Of all who dwell on Olympus, this was none but she, Zeus's daughter, the glorious one, his third born, Who prized your gallant father among the Argives.
Definition

Speaker: Nestor

Spoken To: Telemachus

Term
Scarring his own body with mortifying strokes, Throwing filthy rags on his back like any slave, He slipped into the enemy's city, roamed its streets- All disguised, a totally different man, a beggar, Hardly the figure he cut among Achae's ships. That's how Odysseus infilitrated Troy, And no one knew him at all... I alone, I spotted him for the man he was, Kept questioning him- the crafty one kept dodging.
Definition

Speaker: Helen

Spoken To: Telemachus, crowd 

Term
Three times you sauntered round our hollow ambush, Feeling, stroking its flanks, Challenging all our fighters, calling each by name- Yours was the voice of all our long-lost wives... But Odysseus damped our ardor, reined us back. Then all the rest of the troops kept stock-still...
Definition

Speaker: Menelaus

Spoken To: Helen 

Term
But in spite of us all, look, the young cub slips away, just like that- Picks the best crew in the land and off he sails. And this is just the start of the trouble he can make. Zeus kill that brazed boy before he hits his prime! Quick, fetch me a swift ship and twenty men- I'll waylay him from ambush, board him coming back In the straights between Ithaca and rocky Same. This gallant voyage of his to find his father Will find him wrecked at last!
Definition

Speaker: Antinuous

Spoken to: Suitors 

Term
But if you only knew, down deep, what pains Are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore, You'd stay here, preside in our house with me And be immortal. Much as you long to see your wife The one you pine for all your days...and yet I just might claim to be nothing less than she Neither in face nor figure. Hardly right, is it, for mortal woman to rival immortal goddess?
Definition

Speaker: Calypso

Spoken To: Odysseus 

Term
Here I am at your mercy princess- Are you a goddess or a mortal? If one of the gods Who rule the skies up there, you're Artemis to the life, The daughter of mighty Zeus.. Compassion- Princess, please! You, after all that I have suffered, You are the first I've come to. I know no one else, none in your city, no one in your land.
Definition

Speaker: Odysseus

Spoken To: Nausicaa (Princess of the Phaecians) 

Term
And my father's throne is drawn up close beside her; There he sits and take his wine, a mortal like a god. Go past him, grasp my mother's knees- if you want To see the day of your return, rejoicing, soon, Even if your home's a world away. If only the queen will take you to her heart, Then there's hope that you will see your loved ones, Reach your grand house, your native land at last.
Definition

Speaker: Nausicaa

Spoken To: Odysseus

Term
If only, seeing the man you are, seeing we think as one- You could wed my daughter and be my son-in-law And stay right here with us. I'd give you a house and great wealth- if you chose to stay, that is. No Phaeacian would hold you back by force.
Definition

Speaker: King Alcinuous

Spoken To: Odysseus

Term
And I looked up, and there were your daughter's maids At play on the beach, and she, she moved among them Like a deathless goddess! I begged her for help And not once did her sense of tact desert her; She behaved as you'd never hop to find In one so young, not in a random meeting-
Definition

Speaker: Odysseus

Spoken To: King Alcinuous/Arete 

Term
Suddenly then the countless shades Of the dead and gone will surge around you there. But order your men at once to flay the sheep... You, draw your sharp sword from beside your hip, Sit down on alert there, and never let the ghosts Of the shambling, shiftless dead come near that blood till you have questioned Tiersias yourself.
Definition

Speaker: Circe

Spoken To: Odysseus

Term
Hear me, _______, god of the sea-blue mane who rocks the Earth! If I really am your son and you claim to be my father- Come, grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, Laertes son who makes his home in Ithaca, Never reaches home. Or if he's fated to see His people once again and reach his well-built house... Let him find a world of pain at home.
Definition

Speaker:Polyphemus (Cyclops)

Spoken To: Poseidon

Term
Lotus-eaters who had no notion of killing my companions, not at all, They simply gave them the lotus to taste instead... Any crewman who ate the lotus, the honey-sweet fruit, Lost all desire to send a message back, much less return, their only wish to linger there with the Lotus-eaters, Grazing on lotus, all memory of the journey home Dissolved forever.
Definition

Speaker: Odyssues

Spoken To: King of Phaeacians Alcinuous 

Term
Come, lets give him the parting gifts a guest deserves. There are twelve peers of the realm who rule our land, Thirteen counting myself. Let each of us contribute A fresh cloak and shirt and a bar of precious gold. Gather the gifts together, hurry, so our guest Can have them all in hand when he goes to dine, His spirit filled with joy.
Definition

Speaker: King of Phaeacians Alcinuous

Spoken To: Court 

Term
So there's nothing more deadly, bestial than a woman Set on works like these- what a monstrous thing She plotted, slaughtered her own lawful husband! Why, I expected at least, some welcome home From all my children all my household slaves When i came sailing back again...but she- The queen hell-bent on outrage- bathes in shame not only herself but the whole breed of womankind, Even the honest ones to come, forever down the years.
Definition

Speaker: Agamemnon

Spoken To: Odysseus 

Term
No winning words about death to me, shining ______! By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man- Some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive- Than rule down here over all the breathless dead. But come, tell me the news about my gallant son.
Definition

Speaker: Achilles

Spoken To: Odysseus 

Term
Incredible, Earth-Shaker, you with your massive power, why moaning so? The god's don't disrespect you. What a stir there'd be If they flung abuse at the oldest, noblest of them all. Those mortals? If any man, so lost in his strength And prowess, pays you no respect- just pay him back. The power is always yours. Do what you like. Whatever warms your heart.
Definition

Speaker: Zeus 

Spoken To: Poseidon

Term
Always the same, your wary turn of mind... That's why I can't forsake you in your troubles- You are so winning, so worldy-wise, so self-possessed! Anyone else, come back from wandering long and hard, Would have hurried home at once, delighted to see His children and his wife. Oh, but not you, It's not your pleasure to probe for news of them- You must put your wife to the proof yourself.
Definition

Speaker: Athena

Spoken To: Odysseus

Term
Who is the only woman Odysseus speaks with in the Land of the Dead?
Definition
His mother, Anticleia
Term
Eat up now, my friend. It's all we slaves have got, Scrawny pork, while the suitors eat the fatted hogs- No fear of the gods in their hard hearts, no mercy! Trust me, the blessed gods have no love for crime. they honor justice, honor the decent acts of men.
Definition

Speaker: Eumaeus (Swine Hearder)

Spoken To: Odysseus 

Term
You're home, _______ Sweet light of my eyes! I never thought I'd see you again, Once you'd shipped to Pylos! Quick, dear boy, come in, Let me look at you, look to my heart's content- Under my own roof, the rover home at last. You rarely visit the farm and men these days, Always keeping to town, as if it cheered you To see them there, that infernal crowd of suitors.
Definition

Speaker: Eumaeus (Swine Hearder)

Spoken To: Telemachus

Term
How can I lend the stranger refuge in my house? I'm young myself. I can hardly trust my hands To fight off any man who rises up against me. Then my mother's wavering, always torn two ways: Whether to stay with me and care for the household, True to her husband's bed, the people's voice as well, Or leave at long last with the best man in Achaea Who courts her in the halls, who offers her the most.
Definition

Speaker: Telemachus

Spoken To: Eumaeus/Odyssues

Term
Friend, you're a new man- not what I saw before! Your clothes, they've changed, even your skin has changed- Surely you are some god who rules the vaulting skies! Oh be kind, and we will give you offerings, Gifts of hammered gold to warm your heart- Spare us, please, I beg you!
Definition

Speaker: Telemachus

Spoken To: Odysseus 

Term
Wretched pig-boy, where do you take your filthy swine, This sickening beggar who licks the pots at feasts? Hanging round the doorposts, rubbing his back, Scavenging after scraps, No hero's swords and cauldrons, not for him. Hand him over to me- I'll teach him to work a farm, Much out my stalls, pitch feed to the young goats...
Definition

Speaker: Melanthius (Goat herder)

Spoken To: Eumaeus

Term
I don't grudge you anything, Not if the next man up and gives you plenty. This doorsill is big enough for the both of us- You've got no call to grudge me what's not yours. You're another vagrant, just like me, I'd say, And it lies with the gods to make us rich or poor. So, Keep your firsts to yourself, don't press your luck, don't rile me, Or old as I am, I'll bloody your lip, splatter your chest And buy myself some peace and quiet for tomorrow.
Definition

Speaker: Odysseus

Spoken To: Irus (beggar king)

Term
One more thing I'll tell you- weigh it well. The day that dawns today, this cursed day, Will cut me off from Odysseus' house. Now, i mean to announce a contest with those axes, The ones he would often line up here inside the hall, Twelve in a straight unbroken row like blocks to shore a keel, Then stand well back and whip an arrow through the lot.
Definition

Speaker: Penelope

Spoken To: Odysseus

Term
So tell Penelope now, Anxious as she may be, to wait in the halls until the sun goes down. Then she can ask me All she likes about her husband's journey home. But let her give me a seat close by the fire. The clothes on myh back are tatters. Well you know- You are the first i begged for care and shelter.
Definition

Speaker: Odysseus

Spoken To: Eumaeus 

Term
Where's it gone, ______, your power, your fighting heart? The great soldier who fought for famous white-armed Helen, Battling Trojans nine long years- nonstop, no mercy, Mowing their armies down in grueling battle...How can you- Now you've returned to you own house, your own wealth- Bewail the loss of your combat strength in a war with suitors?
Definition

Speaker: Athena

Spoken To: Odysseus

Term
Courage! The prince has pulled you through, he's saved you now so you can take it to heart and tell the next man too: clearly doing good puts doing bad to shame. Now leave the palace, go and sit outside- Out in the courtyard, clear of the slaughter- You and the bard with all his many songs. Wait till I've done some household chores That call for my attention.
Definition

Speaker: Odysseus

Spoken To: Herald (Medon) 

Term
Come, _______ Move the sturdy bestead out of our bridal chamber- That room the master built with his own hands. Take it out now, sturdy bed that it is, And spread it deep with fleece, Blankets and lustrous throws to keep him warm.
Definition

Speaker: Penelope

Spoken To: Eurycliea

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