Odyssey 2.65 · Book 2, lines 65–67
Fear the gods' wrath
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ἄλλους τʼ αἰδέσθητε περικτίονας ἀνθρώπους, οἳ περιναιετάουσι· θεῶν δʼ ὑποδείσατε μῆνιν, μή τι μεταστρέψωσιν ἀγασσάμενοι κακὰ ἔργα.
And feel shame before the neighboring people who dwell round about; and dread the wrath of the gods, lest in any way they turn it back in indignation at your evil deeds.
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The setting
Still addressing the assembly, Telemachus widens the pressure: shame before the neighbors who will talk, and fear of the gods, who may turn their anger against those who let such wrong go on.
A note on this passage
The appeal climbs from human shame to divine fear. First the neighbors, the ring of communities whose opinion a household lives or dies by; then the gods, whose μῆνις could recoil on the whole complicit town. Telemachus is not threatening — he is warning.
The load-bearing machinery is that the gods watch how men treat one another, especially the weak. μῆνις is the same heavy word the Iliad opens with, the wrath of Achilles; here it hangs over Ithaca itself. The suitors are eating a defenseless house, and Telemachus reminds the onlookers that heaven keeps accounts even when men will not.
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