Sharing Classic Literature: HOMER

HOMER:

The Odyssey

See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 183

…therefore though he will not kill Ulysses outright, he torments him by preventing him from getting home. Still, let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return: Neptune will then be pacified, for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 183

So saying she bound on her glittering golden sandals, imperishable, with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 184

He was sitting moodily among the suitors thinking about his brake father; and how he would send them flying out of the house, if they were to come to his own again and be honored as in days gone by…
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 184

Singing comes cheap to those who do not pay for it, and all this is done at the cost of one whose bones lie rotting in some wilderness or grinding to powder in the surf. If these men were to see my father come back to Ithaca they would pray for longer legs rather than a longer purse, for money would not serve them;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 184

Have you some banquet, or is there a wedding in the family – for on one seems to bring any provision of his own? And the guests – how atrociously they are behaving; what riot they make over the whole house; it is enough to disgust any respectable person who come near them.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 185

“Mother,” answered Telemachus, “Let the bard sing what he has a mind to; bards do not make the ills they sing of; it is Jove, not they, who makes them, and who sends weal or woe upon mankind according to his own good pleasure. This fellow means no harm by singing the ill-fated return of the Danaans, for people always applaud the latest songs most warmly.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 186

Then Eurymachus, son of Polybus, answered, “It rest with heaven to decide who shall be chief among us, but you shall be master in your own house and over your own possessions;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 1, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 187

They are afraid to go to her father Icarius, asking him to choose the one he likes best, and to provide gifts for his daughter, but day by day they keep hanging about my father’s house, sacrificing our oxen, sheep, and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a thought to the quantity of wine they drink. No estate can stand such recklessness, we have now no Ulysses to ward off harm from our doors, and I cannot hold my own against them.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 188

This was what she said, and we assented; whereon we could see her working on her great web all day long, but by night she would unpick the stitches again by torchlight. She fooled us in this way for three years and we never found her out, but as time wore on and she was not in her fourth year, one of her maids who knew what she was doing told us, and we caught her in the act of undoing her work, so she had to finish it whether she would or no.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 189

Hear me, men of Ithaca, I hope that you may never have a kind and well-disposed ruler any more, nor one who will govern you equitably; I hope that all your chiefs hence-forward may be cruel and unjust, for there is no one of you but has forgotten Ulysses, who ruled you as though he were your father. I am not half so angry with the suitors, for if they choose to do violence in the naughiness of their hearts, and wager their heads that Ulysses will not return, they can take the high hand and eat up his estate, but as for you others I am shocked at the way in which you all sit still without ever trying to stop such scandalous goings on – which you could o if you chose, but you are many and they are few.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 190

Ulysses never broke his word nor left his work half done.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 190

If, then, you take after him, your voyage will not be fruitless, but unless you have the blood of Ulysses and of Penelope in your veins I see no likelihood of your succeeding. Sons are seldom as good men as their fathers;. They are generally worse, not better, still, as you are not going to be either fool or coward henceforward, and are not entirely without some share of your father’s wise discernment, I look with hope upon your undertaking.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 190

Sons are seldom as good men as their fathers; they are generally worse, not better; still, as you are not going to be either fool or coward henceforward, and are not entirely without some share of your father’s wise discernment, I look with hope upon your undertaking.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 191

Furthermore, she went to the house of Ulysses and threw the suitors into a deep slumber. She caused their drink to fuddle them, and made them drop their cups form their hands, so that instead of sitting over their wine, they went back into the town to sleep, with their eyes heavy and full of drowsiness.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 2, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 192

“But how, Mentor, “ replied Telmachus, “dare I go up to Nestor, and how am I to address him? I have never yet been used to holding long conversations with people, and am ashamed to begin questioning one who is so much older than myself.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 193

“ Some things, Telemachus,” answered Minerva, “will be suggested to you by your own instinct, and heaven will prompt you further, for I am assured that the gods have been with your form the time of your birth until now.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 193

“My friend,” answer Nestor, “you recall a time of much sorrow to my mind, for the brave Achaeans suffered much both at sea, while privateering under Achilles, and when fighting before the great city of king Priam. Our best men all of them fell there – Ajax, Achilles, Patroclus peer gods in counsel, and my own dear son Antilochus, a man singularly fleet of food and in fight valiant.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 194

If indeed you are his son - I can hardly believe my eyes – and you talk just like him too – no one would say that people of such different ages could speak so much alike.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 194

But we suffered much more than this; what mortal tongue in deed could tell the whole story. Though you were stay here and question me for five years, or even six, I could not tell you all that the Achaeans suffered, and you would turn homeward weary of my tale before it ended. Nine long years did we try every kind of stratagem, but the hand of heaven was against us;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 194

… during all this time there was no one who could compare with your father in subtlety – if indeed you are his son – I can hardly believe my eyes – and you talk just like him too – no one would say that people of such different ages could speak so much alike.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 194

He and I never had any kind of difference from first to last neither in camp nor council, but in singleness of heart and purpose we advised the Argives how all might be ordered for the best.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 194

Heaven has a long arm if it is minded to save a man; and if it were me, I should not care how much I suffered before getting home, provided I could be safe when I was once there. I would rather this than get home quickly, and then he killed in my own house…
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 195

Still, death is certain, and when a man’s hour is come, not even the gods can save him, no matter how fond they are of him.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 195

I see that you are going to be a great hero some day, since the gods wait upon you thus while you are still so young .
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 3, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 197

The moment you see that he is asleep seize him; put forth all your strength and hold him fast, for he will do his very utmost to get away from you. He will turn himself into every kind of creature that goes upon the earth, and will become also both fire and water; but you must hold him fast and grip him tighter and tighter, till he begins to talk to you and comes back to what he was when you saw him go to sleep; then you may slacken your hold and let him go; and you can ask him which of the gods it is that is angry with you, and what you must do to reach your home over the seas.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 4, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 203

Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, so you would start home to your own land at once? Good luck go with you, but if you could only know how much suffering is in store for you before you get back to your own country, you would stay where you are, …
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 5, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 210

As he spoke a sea broke over him with such terrific fury that the raft reeled again, and he was carried overboard a long way off. He let go the helm and the force of the hurricane was so great that it broke the mast half way up, and both sail and yard went over into the sea. For a long time Ulysses was under the water, and it was all he could do to rise to the surface again for the clothes Calypso had given him weighted him down; but at last he got his head above water and spat out the bitter brine that was running down his face in streams. In spite of all this, however, he did not lose sight of his raft, but swam as fast as he could towards it, got a hold of it, and climbed on board again so as to escape drowning. The sea took the raft and tossed it about as Autumn winds swirl thistledown round and round upon a road. It was as though the South, North, East, and West winds were all playing battledore and shuttlecock with it at once.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 5, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 211

And here, take my veil and put it round your chest; it is enchanted, and you can come to no harm so long as you wear it. As soon as you touch land take it off, throw it back as far as you can into the sea, and then go away again.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 5, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 211

There is no accounting for luck; Jove gives prosperity to rich and poor just as he chooses, so you must take what he as seen fit to send you, and make the best of it.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 6, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 216

… no matter how distant it may be. We must see that he comes to no harm while on his homeward journey, but when he is once at home he will have to take the luck he was born with for better or worse like other people.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 7, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 220

Never the less, let me sup in spite of sorrow, for an empty stomach is a very importunate thing, and thrusts itself on a man’s notice no matter how dire is his distress. I am in great trouble, yet it insists that I shall eat and drink, bids me lay aside all memory of my sorrows and dwell only on the due replenishing of itself.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 7, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 220

I shall be content to die if I may first once more behold my property, my bondsmen, and all the greatness of my house.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 7, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 220

… she proved to be of an excellent disposition, much more so than could be expected from so young a person – for young people are apt to be thoughtless.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 7, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 221

… let us proceed therefore to the athletic sports, so that our guest on his return home may be able to tell his friends how much we surpass all other nations as boxers, wrestlers, jumpers, and runners.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 223

I hope, Sir, that you will enter yourself for some one or other of our competitions if you are skilled in any of them – and you must have gone in for many a one before now. There is nothing that does anyone so much credit all his life long as the showing himself a proper man with his hands and feet.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 223

my mind is set rather on cares than contest; I have been through infinite trouble, and I am come among you now as a suppliant, praying your kind an people to further me on my return home.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 223

I gather then that you are unskilled in any of the many sports that men generally delight in. I suppose you are one of those grasping traders that go about in ships as captains or merchants, and who think of nothing but of their outward freights and homeward cargoes. There does not seem to be much of the athlete about you.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 223

“For shame, Sir,” answered Ulysses, fiercely, “you are an insolent fellow – so true is it that the gods do not grace all men alike in speech, person, and understanding. One man may be of weak presence, but heaven has adorned this with such a good conversation that he charms every one who sees him; his honeyed moderation carried his hearers with him so that he is leader in all assemblies of his fellows, and where ever he goes he is looked up to. Another may be as handsome as a god, but his good looks are not crowed with discretion. This is your case. No god could make a finer looking fellow that you are, but you are a fool. Your ill-judged remarks have made me exceedingly angry, and you are quite mistaken, for I excel in a great many athletic exercises; indeed, so long as I had youth and strength. I was among the first athletes of the age. Now however I am worn out by labour and sorrow; for I have gone through much both on the field of battle and by the waves of the wearily sea, still in spite of all this I will compete for your taunts have stung me to the quick.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 223

“Young men,” said he, “come up to that throw if you can, and I will throw another disc as heavy or even heavier. If anyone wants to have a bout with me let him come on, for I am exceedingly angry; I will box, wrestle, or run, I do not care what it is, with any man of you all except Laodamas, but not with him because I am his guest, and one cannot compete with one’s own personal friend.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

At least I do not think it is a prudent or a sensible thing for a guest to challenge his boast’s family at any game, especially when he is in a foreign country.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

I am a good hand at every kind of athletic sport known among mankind. I am an excellent archer. In battle I am always the first to bring a man down with my arrow, no matter how many more are taking aim at him alongside of me.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

I can throw a dart farther than anyone else can shoot an arrow.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

Running is the only point in respect of which I am afraid some of the Phaeacians might beat me, for I have been brought down very low at sea; my provisions ran shot, and therefore I am still weak.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

We are not particularly remarkable for our boxing, nor yet as wrestlers, but we are singularly fleet of foot and are excellent sailors. We are extremely fond of good dinners, music, and dancing; we also like frequent changes of linen, warm baths, and good beds, so now, please some of you who are the best dancers set about dancing, that our guest on his return home may be able to tell his friends how much we surpass all other nations as sailors, runners, dancers, and minstrels.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

Presently the servant came back with Demodocus’s lyre, and he took his place in the midst of them, whereon the best young dancers in the town began to foot and trip it so nimbly that Ulysses was delighted with the merry twinkling of their feet.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 224

Then Ulysses said: “King Alcinous, you said your people were the nimblest dancers in the world and indeed they have proved themselves to be so. I am astonished as I saw them.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 226

As for Euryalus he will have to make a formal apology and a present too, for he has been rude.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 226

“… if anything has been said amiss may the winds blow it away with them and may heaven grant you a safe return, for I understand you have been a long away from home, and have gone through much hardship.”
To which Ulysses answered, “Good luck to you too my friend, and may the gods grant you every happiness. I hope you will not miss the sword you have given me along with your apology.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 8, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 226

There is nothing better or more delightful than when a whole people make merry together, with the guests sitting orderly to listen, while the table is loaded with bread and meats, and the cup bearer draws wine and fills his cup for every man. This is indeed a fair sight as a man can see.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 9, Great Books, Volume 4, pg. 229

…if I am indeed your own true-begotten son, grant the Ulysses may never reach his home alive; or if he must get back to his friends at last, let him do so late and in sore plight after losing all his men [ let him reach his home in another man’s ship and find trouble in his house.]
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 9, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 234

….one would turn to his neighbor saying, “how this man gets honoured and makes friends to whatever city or country he may go.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 10, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 236

Then I awoke, and knew not whether to throw myself into the sea or to live on and make the best of it; but I bore it, covered myself up, and lay down in the ship while the men lamented bitterly as the fierce winds bore our fleet back to the Aeolian island.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 10, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 236

“My men have undone me; they, and cruel sleep, have ruined me. My friends, mend me this mischief, for you can if you will.”
“Vilest of mankind, get you gone at once out of the island; him whom heaven hates will I in no wise help. Be off, for you come here as one abhorred of heaven.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 10, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 236

The first ghost that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid beneath the earth. We had left his body unwaked and unburied in Circe’s house, for we had had too much else to do. I was very sorry for him and cried when I saw him: “Elpenor, “ Said I “how did you come down here into this gloom and darkness? You have got here on foot quicker than I have with my ship.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 243

“Do not go thence leaving me unwaked and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven’s anger upon you; but burn me with whatever armour I have, build a borrow for me on the sea shore, that I may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my messmates.”
And I said, “My poor fellow, I will do all that you have asked of me.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 243

…you must take a well-made oar and carry it on and on, till you come to a country where the people have never heard of the sea and do not even mix salt with their food, nor do they know anything about ships, and oars that are as the wings of a ship. I will give you this certain token which cannot escape your notice. A wayfarer will meet you and will say it must be a winnowing shovel that you have got upon your shoulder…
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 244

It is a hard thing for the living to see these places, for between us and them there are great terrible waters, and there is Oceanus which no man can cross on foot, but he must have a good ship to take him. Are you all this time trying to find your way home from Troy, and have you never yet got back to Ithaca nor seen your wife in your own house?
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 244

… heaven did not take me swiftly and painlessly in my own house, nor was I attacked by any illness such as those that generally wear people out and kill them, but my longing to know what you were doing and the force of my affections for you – this it was that was the death of me.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 245

They were the finest children that were ever born in the world, and the best looking.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 246

But it would take me all night if I were to name every single one of the wives and daughters of heroes whom I saw, and it is time for me to go to bed, either on board ship with my crew, or here. As for my escort, heaven and yourselves will see to it. …there is a time for making speeches and a time for going to bed; nevertheless, since you so desire I will not refrain from telling you the still sadder tale of those of my comrades who did not fall fighting with the Trojans, but perished on their return through the treachery of wicked woman.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 246

When Proserpine had dismissed the female ghosts in all directions, the ghost of Agamemnon son of Atreus came sadly up to me, surrounded by those who had perished with him in the house of Aegisthus. As soon as he had tasted the blood, he knew me, and weeping bitterly stretched out his arms towards me to embrace me, but he had no strength nor substance anymore, and I too wept and pitied him as I beheld him.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 11, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 247

Ulysses woke up once more upon his own soil. He had been so long away that he did not know it again;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 13, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 257

Any one, but yourself on returning from so long a voyage would at once have gone home to see his wife and children, but you do not seem to care about asking after them or hearing any news about them till you have exploited your news about them till you have exploited your wife, who remains at home vainly grieving for you, and having no peace night or day for the tears she sheds on your behalf.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 13, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 258

You must take what you can get and be thankful, for servants live in fear when they have young lords for their masters; and they have young lords for their masters; and this is my misfortune now, for heaven has hindered the return of him who would have been always good to me and given me something of my own – a house, a piece of land, a good looking wife, and all else that a liberal master allows a servant who has worked hard for him and whose labour the gods the gods have prospered as they have mine in the situation which I hold. If my master had grown old here he would have done great things by me, but he is gone, …
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 260

Even the fierce free-looters who go raiding on other people’s land, and Jove gives them their spoil – en they, when they have filled their ships and got home again live conscience stricken, and look fearfully for judgment, but some god seems to have told these people that Ulysses is dead and gone;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 261

…they will not, therefore, go back to their own homes and make their offers of marriage in the usual way, but waste his estate by force without fear or stint. Not a day or night come out of heaven, but they sacrifice not one victim nor two only, and they take the run of his wine, for he was exceedingly rich.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 261

…go where I may I shall never find so good a master, not even if I were to go home to my father and mother where I was bred and born. I do not so much care, however, about my parents now, though I should dearly like to see them again in my own country; it is the loss of Ulysses that grieves me most; I cannot speak of him without reverence though he is here no longer, for he was very fond of me, and took such care of me that wherever he may be I shall always honour his memory.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 261

.. for I hate a man, even as I hate hell fire, who lets his poverty tempt him into lying.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 261

Jove, the protector of strangers, who punishes those who do evil.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 263

Jove the god of hospitality,
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 264

… where I want to go; but if he does not come as I say he will, set your men on to me, and tell them to throw me from yonder precipice, as a warning to tramps not go about the country telling lies.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 264

God grants this, and withholds that, just as he thinks right, for he can do whatever he chooses.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 264

It is the wine that makes me talk in this way; wine will make even a wise man fall to singing; it will make him chuckle and dance and say many a word that he had better leave unspoken; still, as I have begun, I will go on.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 265

Would that I were still young and strong as when we got up an ambuscade before Troy
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 14, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 265

I do not like to see a host either too fond of his guest or too rude to him. Moderation is best in all things, and not letting a man go when he wants to do so is as bad as telling him to go if he would like to stay. One should treat a guest well as long as he is in the house and speed him when he wants to leave it.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 15, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 266

The nights are now at their longest; there is plenty of time both for sleeping and sitting up talking together; you ought not to go to bed till bed time, too much sleep is as bad as too little;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 15, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 270

… any one of the others wishes to go to bed let him leave us and do so;
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 15, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 270

… We two will sit here eating and drinking in the hut, and telling one another stories about our misfortunes; for when a man has suffered much, and been buffeted about in the world, he take pleasure in recalling the memory of sorrows that have long gone by.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 15, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 270

Sirs, an old man like myself, worn out with suffering, cannot hold his own against a young one; but my irrepressible belly urges me on, though I now it can only end in my getting a drubbing.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 18, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 284

Man is the vainest of all creatures that I have their being upon earth. As long as heaven vouchsafes him health and strength, he thinks that he shall come to no harm hereafter, and even when the blesses gods bring sorrow upon him, he bears it as he needs must, and make the best of it; for God Almighty give men their daily minds day by day.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 18, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 285

I fear you are no longer so discreet and well conducted as you used to be. When you were younger you had a greater sense of propriety; now, however, that you are grown up, though a stranger to look at you would take you for the song of a well-to-do father as far as size and good looks go, your conduct is by no means what it should be.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 18, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 286

Your suitors are not wooing me after the custom of my country. When men are courting a woman who they think will be a good wife to them and who is of noble birth, and when they are each trying to win her for himself, they usually bring oxen and sheep to feast the friends of the lady, and they make her magnificent presents, instead of eating up other people’s property without paying for it.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 18, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 287

I am highly displeased with a large number of people in one place and another, both men and women; so name the child ‘Ulysses,” or the child of anger
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 19, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 293

So did his heart growl with anger at the evil deeds that were being done: but he beat his breast and said, “Heart , be still, you had worse than this to bear on the day when the terrible Cyclops ate your brave companions; yet you bore it in silence till your cunning got you safe out of the cave, though you made sure of being killed.”
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 20, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 296

But go to sleep; it is a very bad thing to lie awake all night, and you shall be out of your troubles before long.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 20, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 296

Come, wake up; set about sweeping the cloister and sprinkling them with water to lay the dust; put the covers on the seats; wipe down the tables, some of you, with a wet sponge; clean out the mixing jugs and the cups, and go for water for the fountain at once; the suitors will be here directly; they will be here early, for it is a feast day.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 20, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 297

My dear father, some one of the gods has been making you much taller and better looking
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 24, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 320

If I were still what I then was and had been in our house yesterday with my armour on, I should have been able to stand by you and help you against the suitors. I should have killed a great many of them, and you would have rejoiced to see it.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 24, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 321

… warriors by necessity in spite of their grey hair.
Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 24, Great Books Volume 4, pg. 322

VOCABULARY - HOMER – The Odyssey

Great Books Volume 4

Bard, pg 246
One of an ancient Celtic order of minstrel poets who composed and recited verses celebrating the legendary exploits of chieftains and heroes. Cooking: To tie fat, such as bacon or fatback, around lean meats or fowl to prevent their drying out during roasting

Cloister, pg 247
A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle; quiet private place where you can remain undisturbed

diadem, pg 259
an ornamental jewelled headdress signifying sovereignty; A crown worn as a sign of royalty. Royal power or dignity.

Doughty, pg 262
Marked by stouthearted courage; brave. [Middle English, from Old English dohtig

Fawning, pg 272
attempting to win favor by flattery; sycophantic; toadyish.

Gewgaws, pg 270
novelty, fallal, trinket, geegaw, kickshaw, Type of: adornment. Part of: trinketry

Hullabalooing, pg 240
Great noise or excitement; uproar. noisy excitement or fuss, Sounds or a sound, especially when loud, confused, or disagreeable. Offensively loud and insistent utterances, especially of disapproval. disturbance usually in protest. performance, celebration or other noisy event

Reconnoitre, pg 237
explore, often with the goal of finding something or somebody ; to make a reconnaissance of (land, enemy troops etc). , part of an ongoing series of works concerned with our experience
of the network as a bizarre_scape; an environment with a high metabolism ...

Talisman, pg 239
An object marked with magic signs and believed to confer on its bearer supernatural powers or protection. object that is believed to bring good luck or avert evil, charm, amulet. A magical figure cut or engraved under certain superstitious observances of the configuration of the heavens,

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Saturday, January 28, 2017

HOMER - The Odyssey

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