A hopeless exile from his native home, From death alone exempt – but cease to mourn; Let all combine to achieve his wish’d return; Neptune atoned, his wrath shall now refrain, Or thwart the synod of the gods in vain.
He called at once to his companion Patroclus, shouting for him from the ship. Hearing the call in his hut, Patroclus equal of Ares came out; and that was the beginning of his end.
Men come and go as leaves year by year upon the trees. Those of autumn the wind sheds upon the ground, but when spring returns the forest buds forth with fresh vines. Even so is it with the generations of mankind, the new spring up as the old are passing away.
Never once have you taken courage in your heart to arm with your people for battle, or go into ambuscade with the best.
Well do I know that though cowards quit the field, a hero, whether he wound or be wounded, must stand firm and hold his own.
King who feed on your people, since you rule nonentities;.
Heroes, be men; be what you were before; Or weigh the great occasion, and be more.
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.
In this way, the Odyssey’s hero embodies one of its central themes, which is that the capacity to defer satisfaction and endure suffering is as necessary for success as the ability to perform brilliant feats.
A man cannot hide away the cravings of a hungry belly; this is an enemy which gives much trouble to all men; it is because of this that ships are fitted out to sail the seas, and to make war upon other people.
O old friend, if we two escaping this war were destined to be ageless and deathless always, I myself would not fight in the frontlines, nor would I send you into battle where men win glory; but now, since the fates of death stand by us in their thousands, which a mortal man cannot escape nor flee, let us go – either we will give the right to vaunt to someone else or he to us.
Must you have battle in your heart forever? The bloody toil of combat? Old contender, will you not yield to the immortal gods? That nightmare cannot die, being eternal evil itself – horror, and pain, and chaos; there is no fighting her, no power can fight her. All that avails is flight.
For I have seen the cities of men; and learned their manners.
All the other Greeks who had survived the brutal sack of Troy sailed safely home to their own wives – except this man alone. Calypso, a great.
Never have you patience frankly to speak forth to me the thing that you purpose.
Nothing is more miserable than man, Of all upon the earth that breathes and creeps.
The narrator commands the Muse, “Tell me”: enn-epe. An epic poem is, at its root, simply a tale that is told.
But now, since you have given me accurate proof describing our bed, which no other mortal man beside has ever seen, but only you and I, and there is one serving woman, Aktor’s daughter, whom my father gave me when I came here, who used to guard the doors for us in our well-built chamber; 230 so you persuade my heart, though it has been very stubborn.
That one of them who wins and is proved stronger, let him take the possessions fairly and the woman, and lead her homeward while the rest of us cut our oaths of faith and friendship.
Well, back in Troy, Odysseus and I always agreed in councils, with one mind. We gave the Argives all the best advice.