Odyssey 2.146 · Book 2, lines 146–150
Zeus sends two eagles
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ὣς φάτο Τηλέμαχος, τῷ δʼ αἰετὼ εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς ὑψόθεν ἐκ κορυφῆς ὄρεος προέηκε πέτεσθαι. τὼ δʼ ἕως μέν ῥʼ ἐπέτοντο μετὰ πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο πλησίω ἀλλήλοισι τιταινομένω πτερύγεσσιν· ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ μέσσην ἀγορὴν πολύφημον ἱκέσθην,
So spoke Telemachus, and for him wide-thundering Zeus sent forth two eagles to fly from on high, from a mountain peak. For a while the two flew on the wind's breath, close to each other, straining with their wings; but when at last they reached the middle of the loud assembly,
Word by word
The setting
The narration resumes. The instant Telemachus finishes his prayer for requital, Zeus answers with a sign: two eagles launched from a mountaintop, sweeping toward the very assembly where the suitors sit.
A note on this passage
Telemachus prays for a reckoning, and before he can sit down the sky responds. Zeus sends two eagles from a peak; they ride the wind side by side, wings taut, and bear down on the middle of the meeting. There, in the lines just beyond, they will fall to tearing at each other — the omen an old seer will read as the suitors' death.
The meaning is in the timing: the boy calls on heaven, and heaven answers on the instant. The one deep word is the god's epithet, εὐρύοπα — heard by some as 'wide-thundering,' the great voice, by others as 'far-seeing,' the wide gaze. Both senses are working: the god who hears the prayer and the god who watches the hall are the same god, and he replies not in speech but in a sign meant to be seen. The two straining eagles already carry the shape of the violence to come.
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