Odyssey 2.314 · Book 2, lines 314–317
Now I am grown
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νῦν δʼ ὅτε δὴ μέγας εἰμὶ καὶ ἄλλων μῦθον ἀκούων πυνθάνομαι καὶ δή μοι ἀέξεται ἔνδοθι θυμός, πειρήσω ὥς κʼ ὔμμι κακὰς ἐπὶ κῆρας ἰήλω, ἠὲ Πύλονδʼ ἐλθών ἢ αὐτοῦ τῷδʼ ἐνὶ δήμῳ.
But now, when at last I am indeed grown, and learn by hearing the talk of others, and now within me my spirit swells, I will make trial how I might launch cruel death-dooms upon you, on you all, whether going to Pylos, or right here in this very land.
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus turns from accusation to threat. Grown now, informed by what he hears, his spirit rising, he vows to bring destruction on the suitors — whether he sails to Pylos or stays in Ithaca.
A note on this passage
The vow. Telemachus states the change directly: he is grown, he listens and learns, and something is rising in him. Out of that he swears to ‘make trial’ — to test whether he can loose ruin on the suitors, at home or abroad.
The word he reaches for is κῆρας, the death-spirits — the language of the Iliad's battlefield, now spoken inside a household by a young man with no army. That gap is the point. The threat is real in feeling and empty in means: he has no ship, no men, as the very next lines admit. What is genuine is the θυμός swelling ‘within’ — the coming-of-age felt from the inside and named by the one it is happening to.
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