As inhuman fire sweeps on in fury through the deep angles of a drywood mountain and sets ablaze the depth of the timber and the blustering wind lashes the flame along, so Achilleus swept everywhere with his spear like something more than a mortal harrying them as they died, and the black earth ran blood.
No man is going to hurl me to Hades, unless it is fated, but as for fate, I think that no man yet has escaped it once it has taken its first form, neither brave man nor coward.
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.
So he spoke and strode on, a god, through the mortals’ struggle.
My son, Achilles is of nobler birth than you and he is also by far the stronger man. But you are older than he is. It is for you to give him sound advice, make suggestions and give him a lead which he will follow to his own advantage.’’ Nestor.
The Odyssey puts us into a world that is a peculiar mixture of the strange and the familiar. The tension between strangeness and familiarity is in fact the poem’s central subject.
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.
Ah, wretched man! unmindful of thy end! A moment’s glory; and what fates attend!
Finding him absent, they broke into the cave; the men tried to persuade Odysseus to steal Polyphemus’ cheese and animals and then make a quick escape. Odysseus insisted on staying. When the Cyclops came home, Odysseus demanded a gift;.
As the sail bellied out with the wind, the ship flew through the deep blue water, and the foam hissed against her bows as she sped onward.
What we give to the poor, we lend to God.
Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.
Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers. Generally they are worse; but just a few are better.
Then the guests620 entered the palace, bringing lamb and wine that gives one confidence.
Patroclus equal of Ares came out; and that was the beginning of his end.
The tongue of a man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there of every kind, the range of words is wide, and their variance. The sort of thing you say is the thing that will be said to you.
O great shamelessness, we followed.
You have a mind in you no magic can enchant!
The third man,’ he answered, ’is Ulysses who dwells in Ithaca. I can see him in an island sorrowing bitterly in the house of the nymph Calypso, who is keeping him prisoner, and he cannot reach his home for he has no ships nor sailors to take him over the sea.
Look you now, how ready mortals are to blame the gods. It is from us, they say, that evils come, but they even of themselves, through their own blind folly, have sorrows beyond that which is ordained.