Odyssey 2.167 · Book 2, lines 167–169
The off-ramp offered — and already refused
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οἳ νεμόμεσθʼ Ἰθάκην ἐυδείελον. ἀλλὰ πολὺ πρὶν φραζώμεσθʼ, ὥς κεν καταπαύσομεν· οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ παυέσθων· καὶ γάρ σφιν ἄφαρ τόδε λώιόν ἐστιν.
we who dwell in clear-seen Ithaca. But long before that, let us take thought how we may stop them; and let them too cease themselves; for this at once is better for them.
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The setting
Still speaking, Halitherses turns from prophecy to practical counsel for the Ithacans and for the suitors themselves, before Odysseus arrives.
A note on this passage
The seer turns from foretelling to advice. The Ithacans should act before the disaster lands; the suitors should be checked, or better, should check themselves. He frames restraint as being in their own interest — better for them, and at once.
Halitherses hands the suitors an exit the poem will not let them take. ‘Better for them at once’ states a way out plainly, and the reader already knows it will be refused. There is a small irony in the fixed epithet ἐυδείελος, ‘clear-seen,’ for Ithaca: the sunlit, far-visible island sits over a town that cannot, or will not, see the thing bearing down on it.
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Odyssey 2.167 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/2.167/