GreekComic

No. 11

Easily might a god who willed it bring a man safe home, even from afar. But for myself, I had rather endure many grievous toils ere I reached home and saw the day of my returning, than after my return be slain at my hearth, as Agamemnon was slain by the guile of Aegisthus and of his own wife. But of a truth death that is common to all the gods themselves cannot ward from a man they love, when the fell fate of grievous death shall strike him down - Athena

Homer's Odyssey, Book Three lines 229-239

No. 10

We offered sacrifice to the gods, being eager to reach our homes, howbeit Zeus did not yet purpose our return, stubborn god, who roused evil strife again a second time. Then some turned back their curved ships and departed, even the lord Odysseus, the wise and crafty-minded, with his company, once more showing favour to Agamemnon, son of Atreus; but I with the full company of ships that followed me fled on, for I knew that the god was devising evil.

Homer's Odyssey, Book Three lines 159-166

No. 9

Here the townsfolk on the shore of the sea were offering sacrifice of black bulls to the dark-haired Earth-shaker. Nine companies there were, and five hundred men sat in each, and in each they held nine bulls ready for sacrifice. Now when they had tasted the inner parts and were burning the thigh-pieces to the god, the others put straight in to the shore.

Homer's Odyssey, Book Three lines 5-10

No. 8

Telemachus, thou braggart, unrestrained in daring, let no more any evil deed or word be in thy heart. Nay, I bid thee, eat and drink even as before. All these things the Achaeans will surely provide for thee—the ship and chosen oarsmen—that with speed thou mayest go to sacred Pylos to seek for tidings of thy noble father - Antinous

Homer's Odyssey, Book Two lines 303-309

No. 7

They flew swift as the blasts of the wind side by side with wings outspread; but when they reached the middle of the many-voiced assembly, then they wheeled about, flapping their wings rapidly, and down on the heads of all they looked, and death was in their glare. Then they tore with their talons one another's cheeks and necks on either side, and darted away to the right across the houses and the city of the men.

Homer's Odyssey, Book Two lines 149-154

No. 6

On the morrow call to an assembly the Achaean lords, and speak out thy word to all, and let the gods be thy witnesses. As for the wooers, bid them scatter, each to his own. -Athena

For us, we will go neither to our lands nor else whither, until she marries that one of the Achaeans whom she will. -Antinous

Homer's Odyssey, Book One lines 272-274 and Book Two lines 127-128

No. 5

All the princes who hold sway over the islands - Dulichium and Same and wooded Zacynthus - and all those who lord it over rocky Ithaca, all these woo my mother and lay waste my house. And she neither refuses the hateful marriage, nor is she able to make an end; but they with feasting consume my substance: ere long they will bring me, too, to ruin. - Telemachus

Homer's Odyssey, Book One lines 245-251

No. 4

I will go to Ithaca, that I may the more arouse [Odysseus'] son, and set courage in his heart to call to an assembly the long haired-Achaeans, and speak out his word to all the wooers, who are ever slaying his thronging sheep and his sleek kine of shambling gate. - Athena

Homer's Odyssey, Book One lines 89-94

No. 3

Let us send forth Hermes, the messenger, Argeiphontes, to the isle Ogygia, that with all speed he may declare to the fair-tressed nymph our fixed resolve, even the return of Odysseus of the steadfast heart, that he may come home.

Homer's Odyssey, Book One lines 84-90

No. 2

How should I, then, forget godlike Odysseus, who is beyond all mortals in wisdom, and beyond all has paid sacrifice to the immortal gods, who hold broad heaven? Nay, it is Poseidon, the earth-enfolder, who is ever filled with stubborn wrath... Poseidon, the earth shaker, does not indeed slay Odysseus, but makes him a wanderer from his native land.

Homer's Odyssey, Book One lines 66-75.

No. 1

My heart is torn for wise Odysseus, hapless man, who far from his friends this long while has been suffering woes in a seagirt isle, where is the navel of the sea. 'Tis a wooded isle, and therein dwells a goddess [Calypso], daughter of Atlas... that keeps back that wretched, sorrowing man: and ever with soft and wheedling words she beguiles him that he might forget Ithaca. But Odysseus, in his longing to see were it but the smoke leaping up from his own land, yearns to die.

- Homer's Odyssey, Book One lines 47-60