Quotes from The Odyssey - Boblyman.net

Quotes from The Odyssey
vi.160 - 169 I have never with these eyes seen anything like you,
neither man nor woman. Wonder takes me as I look on you.
Yet in Delos once I saw such a thing, by Apollo’s altar.
I saw the stalk of a young palm shooting up. I had gone there
once, and with a following of a great many people,
on that journey which was to mean hard suffering for me.
And as, when I looked upon that tree, my heart admired it
long, since such a tree had never yet sprung from the earth, so
now, lady, I admire you and wonder, and am terribly
afraid to clasp you by the knees.
(Odysseus supplicates Nausikaa 106)
xi.100 - 109 Glorious Odysseus, what you are after is sweet homecoming,
but the god will make it hard for you. I think you will not
escape the Shaker of the Earth, who holds a grudge against you
in his heart, and because you blinded his dear son, hates you.
But even so and still you might come back, after much suffering,
if you can contain your own desire, and contain your companions’,
at that time when you first put in your well-made vessel
at the island Thrinakia, escaping the sea’s blue water,
and there discover pasturing the cattle and fat sheep
of Helios, who sees all things, and listens to all things.
(Teiresias counseling Odysses 170 – 171).
xi.441 - 444 So by this, do not be too easy even with your wife,
nor give her an entire account of all you are sure of.
Tell her part of it, but let the rest be hidden in silence.
And yet you, Odysseus, will never be murdered by your wife.
(ghost of Agamemnon to Odysseus 179)
xi.488 - 491 O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying.
I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another
man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on,
than be a king over all the perished dead.
(ghost of Achilleus to Odysseus 180)
xviii.130 - 137 Of all creatures that breathe and walk on the earth there is nothing
more helpless than a man is, of all that the earth fosters;
for he thinks that he will never suffer misfortune in future
days, while the gods grant him courage, and his knees have spring
in them. But when the blessed gods bring sad days upon him,
against his will he must suffer it with enduring spirit.
For the mind in men upon earth goes according to the fortunes
the Father of Gods and Men, day by day, bestows upon them.
(Odysseus to Amphinomos the suitor 273)
xix.36 - 40 Father, here is a great wonder that my eyes look on.

Always it seems that the chamber walls, the handsome bases
and roof timbers of the fit and tall columns sustaining them,
shine in my eyes as if a fire were blazing. There must be
surely a god here, one of those who hold the high heaven.
(Telemachos to Odysseus 283)
xix.115 - 120 Question me now here in your house about all other
matters, but do not ask who I am, the name of my country,
for fear you may increase in my heart its burden of sorrow
as I think back; I am very full of grief, and I should not
sit in the house of somebody else with my lamentation
and wailing. It is not good to go on mourning forever.
(Odysseus to Penelope 285)
xix.328 - 334 Human beings live for only a short time,
and when a man is harsh himself, and his mind knows harsh thoughts,
all men pray that sufferings will befall him hereafter
while he lives; and when he is dead all men make fun of him.
But when a man is blameless himself, and his thoughts are blameless,
the friends he has entertained carry his fame widely
to all mankind, and many are they who call him excellent.
(Penelope to Odysseus 290)
xx.45 - 51 Stubborn man! Anyone trusts even a lesser companion
than I, who is mortal, and does not have so many ideas.
But I am a god, and through it all I keep watch over you
in every endeavor of yours. And now I tell you this plainly:
even though there were fifty battalions of mortal people
standing around us, furious to kill in the spirit of battle,
even so you could drive away their cattle and fat sheep.
(Athene comforts Odysseus 299)
xxi.424 - 430 Telemachos, your guest that sits in your halls does not then
fail you; I missed no part of the mark, nor have I made much
work of stringing the bow; the strength is still sound within me,
and not as the suitors said in their scorn, making little of me.
Now is the time for their dinner to be served the Achaians
in the daylight, then follow with other entertainment,
the dance and the lyre; for these things come at the end of the feasting.
(Odysseus to Telemachos 320)
xxiv.192 - 198 O fortunate son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices,
surely you won yourself a wife endowed with great virtue.
How good was proved the heart that is in blameless Penelope,
Ikarios’ daughter, and how well she remembered Odysseus,
her wedded husband. Thereby the fame of her virtue shall never
die away, but the immortals will make for the people
of earth a thing of grace in the song for prudent Penelope.
(Agamemnon praising Penelope 350)