Odyssey 2.296 · Book 2, lines 296–300
Home to a house full of enemies
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ὣς φάτʼ Ἀθηναίη κούρη Διός· οὐδʼ ἄρʼ ἔτι δὴν Τηλέμαχος παρέμιμνεν, ἐπεὶ θεοῦ ἔκλυεν αὐδήν. βῆ δʼ ἰέναι πρὸς δῶμα, φίλον τετιημένος ἦτορ, εὗρε δʼ ἄρα μνηστῆρας ἀγήνορας ἐν μεγάροισιν, αἶγας ἀνιεμένους σιάλους θʼ εὕοντας ἐν αὐλῇ.
So spoke Athena, daughter of Zeus. And no longer did Telemachus linger long, once he had heard the god's voice. He set out to go toward the house, his own heart grieved, and found the arrogant suitors in the halls, flaying goats and singeing swine in the court.
Word by word
The setting
The speech ends. The narrator names the disguised Mentor for what she is, and Telemachus — heartened but grieving — returns to find the suitors at their feast, butchering his herds in his own courtyard.
A note on this passage
The speech closes and the narrator lifts the veil: the ‘Mentor’ who has just spoken was Athena, κούρη Διός, ‘daughter of Zeus.’ Telemachus obeys at once and heads home, but grieving — his heart still heavy under the encouragement.
The gap between what we know and what he knows is the point. We are told plainly it was the goddess; he knows only that ‘a god's voice’ spoke. And the house he walks back into is the poem's standing wound: the suitors butchering his goats and swine in his own courtyard. A feast should be xenia, the sacred exchange of host and guest; here it is pure consumption, the herds of an absent man slaughtered by the men devouring his house.
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