Odyssey 2.233 · Book 2, lines 233–236
None remembers the gentle king
Read the full text in our reader
ὡς οὔ τις μέμνηται Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο λαῶν οἷσιν ἄνασσε, πατὴρ δʼ ὣς ἤπιος ἦεν. ἀλλʼ ἦ τοι μνηστῆρας ἀγήνορας οὔ τι μεγαίρω ἔρδειν ἔργα βίαια κακορραφίῃσι νόοιο·
since not one remembers divine Odysseus, of the people he ruled, and gentle as a father he was. But truly I do not at all begrudge the proud suitors their doing violent deeds in the wickedness of their minds;
Word by word
The setting
Mentor explains his sarcasm: Odysseus ruled his people as gently as a father, and now no one remembers it. Then he turns — surprisingly — to say he does not even blame the suitors.
A note on this passage
The bitter joke gets its reason: the gentle king is forgotten. ‘Gentle as a father’ is the elegy — Odysseus ruled by care, not force, and Ithaca has let the memory lapse. Then Mentor pivots hard: he does not, he says, even resent the suitors' violence.
That turn is deliberate. The suitors are wicked, but their wickedness is expected — it is what greedy men do. The word κακορραφίη carries the image of evil ‘stitched together,’ a plot sewn in the mind. Mentor grants the plotters their nature so that his real anger can land where it belongs, in the next breath: not on the few who prey, but on the many who watch and say nothing.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 2.233 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 2.233 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/2.233/