Odyssey 2.55 · Book 2, lines 55–57
Eating the house alive
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οἱ δʼ εἰς ἡμέτερον πωλεύμενοι ἤματα πάντα, βοῦς ἱερεύοντες καὶ ὄις καὶ πίονας αἶγας εἰλαπινάζουσιν πίνουσί τε αἴθοπα οἶνον
But they, haunting our house day after day, slaughtering oxen and sheep and fat goats, feast and drink the sparkling wine—
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The setting
Telemachus itemizes the daily damage: the suitors camp in his house every day, killing his livestock and drinking his wine.
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The damage is put as an inventory: every day the suitors are in the house, killing oxen, sheep, fat goats, and drinking the bright wine.
The undercurrent is that the horror is domestic accounting. This catalogue of slaughtered animals is the vocabulary of a proper feast — of sacrifice and hospitality — turned parasitic. The whole guest-host system that structures the poem is running backward here: guests who devour the host, an honor-feast held at the expense of the man being dishonored. Telemachus does not need to editorialize; the list of beasts is the argument.
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