Odyssey 1.368 · Book 1, lines 368–371
Feast, but cease the uproar
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Telemachus — μητρὸς ἐμῆς μνηστῆρες ὑπέρβιον ὕβριν ἔχοντες, νῦν μὲν δαινύμενοι τερπώμεθα, μηδὲ βοητὺς ἔστω, ἐπεὶ τόδε καλὸν ἀκουέμεν ἐστὶν ἀοιδοῦ τοιοῦδʼ οἷος ὅδʼ ἐστί, θεοῖς ἐναλίγκιος αὐδήν.
Suitors of my mother, pressing overweening insolence — now let us take pleasure feasting, and let there be no uproar, since this is a fine thing, to hear a bard such as this one is, like the gods in voice.
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The setting
Telemachus's first words to the suitors. He names their conduct for what it is, then — before making any demand — asks only that they enjoy the feast and the bard's song quietly.
A note on this passage
Telemachus opens with restraint. He tells the suitors to enjoy the meal and the song but to stop the shouting, and praises the singer as ‘like the gods in voice.’ It sounds almost like a host's courtesy — and that is the trap he is setting before he springs it.
But the very first thing out of his mouth is ὕβρις, the word that will damn these men, spoken to their faces. And the compliment to the bard is Homer's quiet self-portrait: the poem praising the god-given art it is itself performing (the singer is Phemius, forced to entertain the men wrecking the house). The gap is the point — a divine voice sounding over a hall full of trespass, and a boy asking the trespassers to be quiet enough to hear it.
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