Odyssey 1.388 · Book 1, lines 388–391
Telemachus: would you begrudge me?
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τὸν δʼ αὖ Τηλέμαχος πεπνυμένος ἀντίον ηὔδα·
Telemachus — Ἀντίνοʼ, ἦ καί μοι νεμεσήσεαι ὅττι κεν εἴπω; καί κεν τοῦτʼ ἐθέλοιμι Διός γε διδόντος ἀρέσθαι. ἦ φῂς τοῦτο κάκιστον ἐν ἀνθρώποισι τετύχθαι;
Then wise Telemachus answered him in turn, speaking in reply: Antinous, will you truly begrudge me even for what I say? Yet I would be willing to accept this too, if Zeus should grant it. Do you say this is the very worst thing that could befall among men?
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The setting
Unshaken by the curse, Telemachus turns Antinous's mockery into a set of calm questions, and refuses to treat kingship as something shameful to want.
A note on this passage
Telemachus does not flinch. He turns the curse into questions: would you really resent me for merely speaking? — and then says he would gladly accept the kingship if Zeus gave it, and asks whether being king is truly the worst fate a man could meet.
The undercurrent is that he refuses the trap. Antinous framed the wish for kingship as arrogance; Telemachus reframes it as a legitimate good, held under the pious formula Διός διδόντος, ‘if Zeus grants it.’ By staying calm and putting the burden back as a question, the boy is out-arguing the man — and the epithet πεπνυμένος, ‘wise,’ laid on him twice in the scene, is being earned in real time.
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