Odyssey 2.249 · Book 2, lines 249–251
He would die on his own floor
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οὔ κέν οἱ κεχάροιτο γυνή, μάλα περ χατέουσα, ἐλθόντʼ, ἀλλά κεν αὐτοῦ ἀεικέα πότμον ἐπίσποι, εἰ πλεόνεσσι μάχοιτο· σὺ δʼ οὐ κατὰ μοῖραν ἔειπες.
not even then would his wife rejoice for him, greatly though she longs, at his coming; but right there he would meet an unseemly doom, if he fought too many. And you — you have not spoken as is right.
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The setting
Leocritus finishes the hypothetical: even Odysseus, back in his own house, would meet death rather than win against so many. He ends by throwing Mentor's speech back at him.
A note on this passage
The sentence turns cruel: even the returning king would find no joy of his waiting wife, but death on his own floor, cut down by sheer numbers. Leocritus folds Penelope's longing into the taunt — she may want him home, but home is where he would fall.
The undercurrent is the phrase κατὰ μοῖραν, 'according to what is right.' Leocritus accuses Mentor of speaking out of measure, out of order — the very language Homer keeps for speech that is proper and fated. The suitor claims propriety while plotting to hold a stolen house; the word for 'right' sits in his mouth like a coin he has not earned.
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