Odyssey 2.161 · Book 2, lines 161–166
‘A great woe is rolling on the suitors’
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Halitherses — κέκλυτε δὴ νῦν μευ, Ἰθακήσιοι, ὅττι κεν εἴπω· μνηστῆρσιν δὲ μάλιστα πιφαυσκόμενος τάδε εἴρω· τοῖσιν γὰρ μέγα πῆμα κυλίνδεται· οὐ γὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς δὴν ἀπάνευθε φίλων ὧν ἔσσεται, ἀλλά που ἤδη ἐγγὺς ἐὼν τοῖσδεσσι φόνον καὶ κῆρα φυτεύει πάντεσσιν· πολέσιν δὲ καὶ ἄλλοισιν κακὸν ἔσται,
Hear me now, men of Ithaca, in whatever I say; and to the suitors above all, declaring these things plainly: on them a great woe is rolling; for Odysseus will not for long be far from his own dear ones, but surely even now, being near at hand, he plants murder and doom for these men, for them all; and for many others too there will be evil,
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The setting
Halitherses begins his prophecy. He calls the whole assembly to listen but aims his warning squarely at the suitors devouring Odysseus's house.
A note on this passage
The seer's warning opens. He summons the assembly but points the message at the suitors: a great πῆμα, a woe, is rolling toward them. Odysseus is not far off — near at hand, he is already sowing their deaths, and evil will spill over onto many others as well.
Two verbs carry the doom. κυλίνδεται, ‘rolls,’ sets the woe moving on its own, a boulder already loose on the slope. φυτεύει, ‘plants,’ makes the killing agricultural — the slaughter is sown now and will be reaped at the homecoming, and Homer uses this same planting-image elsewhere for the deaths Odysseus prepares. The prophecy is exact, public, and named to the suitors' faces; that it will change nothing is the tragedy.
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