Quotes

• "It was their own transgression that brought them to their doom"

  • narrator
  • book one, introduction
  • about Odysseus' crew
• "Odysseus alone was prevented from returning to the home and wife he yearned for"

  • book one, stuck on Calypso's island
  • nostos
• "Odysseus, who would give anything for the mere sight of the smoke rising up from his own land, can only yearn for death."

  • odysseus trapped on calypso's island
  • book one
  • Athena speaking
• "the insolent suitors"

  • athena's description of the suitors
  • book one
• "all the nobles in rocky ithaca and there is not one who isn't courting my mother and wasting my property"

  • telemachus on the suitors
  • book one
• "meanwhile, they are eating me out of house and home, and they will very soon destroy me too."

  • telemachus on suitors
  • book one
• "You are no longer a child: you must put childish thoughts away."

  • athena to telemachus
  • book one
• "For in that catastrophe, no one was dealt a heavier blow than I, who pass my day in mourning for the best of husbands"

  • penelope about odysseus
  • book one
  • nostos
• "the man whose name rings through the hands from Hellas to the heart of Argos"

  • penelope about odysseus
  • book one
  • kleos
• "making decisions must be men's concern, and mine in particular, for I am the master of this house"

  • telemachus to penelope
  • attitudes towards women
• "I pray that Zeus will bring a day of reckoning, when in this house I will destroy you - and not make restitution"

  • telemachus to the suitors
• "It is your mother, that incomparable schemer, who is the culprit"

  • suitor (antinuous) to telemachus
  • attitudes towards women
  • book two
• "Telemachus, you will neither be a coward nor a fool in the future, if your father's manly vigour has descended on you"

  • athena to telemachus
  • book two
• "it is not easy to divert the immortal gods from their purpose"

  • nestor talking about athena's retribution against the greeks
  • book three
• "be as brave as orestes, then future generations will sing your praises"

  • nestor to telemachus
  • contrast
  • book three
• "don't stay too long or far from home, nor leave your wealth unguarded with such an arrogant set of brutes in the place, unless you want them to share it out, eat up all you have"

  • nestor to telemachus
  • warning about the suitors
  • after clytemnestra's tale
  • book three
• "there is no chance you'll ever be a coward or a weakling when you already have the guardian gods on your side"

  • nestor to telemachus
  • book three
• "for all of the Achaeans who strove at troy, it was Odysseus who strove the hardest and achieved the most"

  • menelaus on odysseus
  • Reinforcing kleos
  • book four
• "looking like artemis"

  • description of helen
  • attitudes towards women
  • goddess of chastity
• "shameless creature that i was!"

  • helen describing herself in troy
  • book four
• "never have i set my eyes on a man of such endurance as the indomitable odysseus"

  • menelaus on odysseus
  • kleos
  • book four
• "i rejoiced, for i was already longing to go home again"

  • helen
  • book four
• "if ever a man was born to suffer, it was he"

  • telemachus on odysseus
• "I hope Zeus clips his wings before manhood!"

  • suitor on telemachus
  • book four
• "a grim ending there'll be to this sea trip in search of his father"

  • suitors on telemachus
  • murder plots
  • book four
• "you are hard-hearted, you gods, and unmatched for jealousy"

  • calypso to hermes
  • just told to release odysseus
  • book five
• "she looked like Artemis the Archeress"

  • nausicaa
  • unmarried - chaste
  • book six
• "Nausicaa was the only one to stand firm. Athena put courage in her heart and took the fear from her limbs."

  • nausicaa when odysseus appeared
  • book six
• "I should blame any girl who behaved like that - who, behind her family's back, associated with men before being properly married."

  • nausicaa
  • attitudes towards women
  • book six
• "if only you can secure her friendly interest, you may well hope to see your friends once more"

  • athena about arete
  • example of a powerful woman
  • book seven
• "my fame has reached the heavens"

  • odysseus
  • kleos
  • book nine
• "i, for one, know of no sweeter sight for a man's eyes than one's own country"

  • odysseus
  • nostos
  • book nine
• "I had to use force to bring them back to the hollow ships... I tied them up... I commanded..."

  • odysseus on the events of the lotus eaters
  • makes himself look to be a good leader
  • book nine
• "my men begged me to let them take away some of the cheeses...but i was not to be persuaded"

  • odysseus
  • blaming crew
  • book nine
• "I laughed to myself at the way in which my cunning notion of a false name had taken them in."

  • odysseus about plan against polyphemus
  • no one - metis
  • book nine
• "Cyclops, if anyone ever asks how you came by your blindness, tell him your eye was put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes who lives in Ithaca."

  • odysseus at polyphemus
  • hubris - need for kleos allowed cyclops to curse him
  • book nine
• "An untrustworthy crew and a fatal sleep were my downfall."

  • odysseus to aeolus
  • book ten
• "Someone inside was singing in a clear voice as she went to and fro at her web - either a goddess or a woman."

  • odysseus talking about circe
  • book ten
• "the gods, after all, can do anything"

  • odysseus
  • talking about the moly hermes obtained
  • book ten
• "It was [Odysseus's] reckless folly that cost them their lives."

  • eurylochus about the men they lost at the cyclops' island
  • book ten