Odyssey 2.367 · Book 2, lines 367–370
They will plot against you
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οἱ δέ τοι αὐτίκʼ ἰόντι κακὰ φράσσονται ὀπίσσω, ὥς κε δόλῳ φθίῃς, τάδε δʼ αὐτοὶ πάντα δάσονται. ἀλλὰ μένʼ αὖθʼ ἐπὶ σοῖσι καθήμενος· οὐδέ τί σε χρὴ πόντον ἐπʼ ἀτρύγετον κακὰ πάσχειν οὐδʼ ἀλάλησθαι.
And at once, as you go, they will contrive evils for you hereafter, so that you may perish by treachery, and they themselves will divide all this. But stay here, sitting on your own; there is no need for you to suffer ills on the barren sea, nor to wander.
Word by word
The setting
Eurycleia continues her plea. 'They' are the suitors besieging the house; she fears they will ambush Telemachus and, once he is dead, carve up his inheritance among themselves.
A note on this passage
The nurse names the real danger: not the sea's storms but the men in the hall. She foresees an ambush the moment he leaves, and behind it the suitors' true aim — kill the heir and split the estate. Her counsel is to sit still and keep what is his rather than risk himself on open water.
The fear is well-founded; the poem will in fact give the suitors just such an ambush to plan. But her advice, however loving, is the counsel of paralysis — the very stay-and-endure logic that has let the suitors eat the house for years. Telemachus's growth is measured by his refusal of it.
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