The Odyssey Quotes

"This is absurd,/ that mortals blame the gods! They say we cause/ their suffering, but they themselves increase it/ by folly" (106).

Poseidon says to the gods about that one story

"You must not stick to childhood;/ You are no longer just a little boy./ You surely heard how everybody praised/ Orestes when he killed the man who killed/ his famous father - devious Aegisthus" (114).

Athena says to tele

"But now, you make me so unhappy! This is pointless!' He flung the scepter down,/ and burst out crying" (122).

Telemachus says to the people of Ithaca about having someone help him with his journey

"Telemachus/, you stuck-up, wilful little boy! How dare you/ try to embarrass us and put the blame/ on us? We suitors have not done you wrong./ go blame your precious mother! She is cunning./ It is the third year, soon it will be four/ that she has cheated us of all we want" (123)

Antinous says to tele about his tantrum

"Even death is universal. Even gods cannot protect the people that they love, when fate and cruel death catch up with them." (142)

athena says to tele

"The Trojan women keened in grief, but I/ was glad - by then I wanted to go home./ I wished Aphrodite had not made me/ go crazy when she took me from my country,/ and made me leave my daughter and the bed/ I shared with my fine, handsome, clever husband" (160).

Helen tells her story about the trojan horse

"You came there too. Some spirit who desired/ to glorify the Trojans urged you on/ Godlike Deiophebus was following you./ Three times you went around the hollow belly, touching the hiding place, and calling on/ us Greeks by name; you put on different voices/ for each man's wife" (161)

Menelaus says to his wife and the guests

"You cruel, jealous gods! You bear a grudge/ whenever any goddess takes a man/ to sleep with as a lover in her bed" (184)

calypso says to Hermes when he comes to free odysseus

"Those Greeks were lucky, three and four times over,/ who died upon the plain of Troy to help/ the sons of Atreus. I wish I had/ died that same day the mass of Trojans hurled/ their bronze-tipped spears at me around the corpse/ of Peleus' son. I would have had/ a funeral, and honor from the Greeks;/ but now I have to die this cruel death" (190)

Odysseus says when on the raft to leaves calypsos island while a storm comes

"So may the gods grant all your heart's desires, / a home and husband, somebody like-minded. / For nothing could be better than when two / live in one house, their minds in harmony, / husband and wife. Their enemies are jealous, / their friends delighted, and they have great honor" (203)

odysseus says to nausicaa when he arrives on her island

"I could tell many stories of the dangers/ I have suffered through; gods willed it so./ But let me have my meal, despite my grief. /The belly is just like a whining dog" (215)

Odysseus says to Alcinous while first arriving at his house

"Crime does not pay! The slow can beat the quick. As now Hephaestus, who is lame and slow, has used his skill to catch the fastest sprinter of all those on Olympus. Ares owes the price for his adultery" (231)

the gods gossiping about ares

"As you know, / divine Calypso held me in her cave, / wanting to marry me; and likewise Circe, / the trickster, trapped me, and she wanted me // to be her husband. But she never swayed / my heart, since when a man is far from home, / living abroad, there is no sweeter thing / than his own native land and family" (241).

odysseus says to alcinous while telling his story

"'Cyclops! If any mortal asks you how/ your eye was mutilated and made blind,/ say that Odysseus, the city-stacker,/ Laertes' son, who lives in Ithaca,/ Destroyed your sight." (256).

odysseus says to the cyclops while leaving his island

"While I slept my men began to mutter/, saying the great Aeolus gave me gifts -/ silver and gold that I was taking home/. With glances to his neighbor, each complained,/ 'It seems that everybody loves this man/, and honors him, in every place we sail to/. He also has that loot from sacking Troy./ We shared the journey with him, yet we come back home with empty hands'" (260)

Odysseus says still telling his story to alcinous

"When those men are dead,/ you have to go away and take an oar/ to people with no knowledge of the sea, who do not salt their food. They never saw/ a ship's red prow/ nor oars/ the wings of boats" (283)

Tiresias speaks to Odysseus about what he must do when he gets home.

"You must not comfort me/ for death. I would prefer to be a workman,/ hired by a poor man on a peasant farm,/ than rule as king of all the dead" (295)

Achilles talking to Odysseus in the underworld about how he would rather be poor and alive than the king of the dead.

"Your mind is still obsessed with the deeds of war. But now you must surrender to the gods. She is not mortal. She is a deathless evil, terrible, wild, and cruel. You cannot fight her. The best solution and the only way is flight" (305)

Circe says this to Odysseus while giving him advice about the water monsters.

"Odysseus! Come here! You are well-known/ from many stories! Glory of the Greeks!/Now stop your ship and listen to our voices./All those who pass this way hear honeyed song, poured from our mouths. The music brings them joy,/and they go on their way with greater knowledge,/since we know everything the Greeks and Trojans/ suffered in Troy, by gods' will; and we know/ whatever happens anywhere on earth" (307)

sirens trying to lure in odysseus

"You clever rascal! So duplicitous,/ so talented at lying! You love fiction/ and tricks so deeply, you refuse to stop/ even in your own land. Yes, both of us/ are smart. No man can plan and talk like you,/ and I am known among the gods for insight and craftiness" (326)

Athena says this to Odysseus because she tricked the trickster when he thought he had the upper hand.

"My friend, you are so adamant, insisting/ that he will not come back. You have no faith./ But this is no tall tale: I swear to you/ Odysseus is on his way. And when/ he is in his own house, then I will claim my prize as messenger - some better clothes./ Till then, I will take nothing, though I need them./ I hate like Hades' gates the man who caves/ to poverty, and starts to lie" (337)

Odysseus says this to Eumaeus while disguised as a beggar to give him hope.

"You know how women are- they want to help the house of any man they marry. When one darling husband dies, his wife forgets him, and her children by him" (351)

Athena says this to Telemachus about his mother Penelope so he will go home.

"And if I lost - since I am only one/ against so many - I would rather die/ in my own house than watch such crimes committed" (373)

Odysseus says this pretending to be a beggar to Telemachus and Euames about the suitors.

"Father, you will see/ my courage in the moment. I am tough./ But it would take too long to go around/ and test each man like that, and all the while/ the suitors would be sitting in your house,/ wasting your wealth with heedless partying./ So reconsider." (379)

Telemachus is saying this to Odysseus about the suitors and forming their plan.

"So Argos lay there dirty, covered with fleas. And when he realized Odysseus was near, he wagged his tail, and both his ears dropped back. He was too weak to move towards his master." ( 396)

Argos is the only one who recognizes his master, Odysseus but he dies.

"May spirits guide you/ home so you do not meet him when he comes./ When he confronts the suitors in this hall/ there will be blood" (413)

Odysseus says an omen to Amphinomus about confronting the suitors.

"Odysseus, who had endured so much,/ was happy she was secretly procuring/ presents and charming the with pretty words,/ while her mind moved elsewhere" (418)

Penelope accepts gifts from suitors and Odysseus is happy because he knows exactly what she is doing.

"The suitors want to push me into marriage,/ but I spin schemes" (429)

Penelope is talking about (metaphor) for weaving for 7 years.

"My child! What you have said! You know/ my mind is firm, unshakeable; i will/remain as strong as stone or iron. Let me/ promise you this; if you defeat the suitors,/ i will tell you which women in the palace/ dishonor you, and which are free from guilt" (440)

Eurycleia says this to Odysseus I am loyal to you and will never cross you.

"They cackled, and they lost/ control of their own faces. Plates of meat/began to drip with blood. Their eyes were full/ of tears, and they began to wail in grief" (457)

THe OMEn

:Athena possesed the suitors to make it come true.

"Go up and work/ with loom and distaff; tell your girls the same/ The bow is work for men, especially me./ I am the one with power in this house" (472)

Telemachus said this to Penny to assert dominance over his mom so she would go upstairs.

"You did not fear/ the gods who live in heaven, and you thought/no man would ever come to take revenge./Now you are trapped inside the snares of death" (477)

Odysseus says this to the suitors after revealing himself. They didn't think he would get back and they abused the power they held. Noman is a reference to earlier in the book to the cyclops.

"As doves or thrushes spread their wings to fly/ home to their nests, but someone sets a trap -/ they crash into a net, a bitter bedtime;/ just so the girls, their heads all in a row, were strung up with the noose around their necks/ to make their death and agony" (492)

These slaves girls were raped by the suitors death metaphor for doves which are innocent.

"If this is really him,/ if my Odysseus has come back home,/ we have our ways to recognize each other,/ through secret signs known to just us two" (498)

Penelope is saying this to Telemachus because she knows her husband and how he must prove his identity.