Odyssey 4.661 · Book 4, lines 661–662
Antinous, black with rage
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ἀχνύμενος· μένεος δὲ μέγα φρένες ἀμφιμέλαιναι πίμπλαντʼ, ὄσσε δέ οἱ πυρὶ λαμπετόωντι ἐίκτην·
grieving; and his black-clouded heart was filled greatly with rage, and his two eyes were like blazing fire.
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The setting
The suitors have just learned that Telemachus slipped away by ship to seek news of his father. Antinous, their ringleader, rises to speak — and the poet first shows us his fury before he opens his mouth.
A note on this passage
Before Antinous says a word, the poem paints him. His midriff — the seat of anger in Homer — goes dark and swells full of rage, and his eyes are made to look like blazing fire. The line is pure physical portrait, all fury and no speech yet.
The undercurrent is how completely the suitors have overreached. A boy's simple act — sailing off to ask after his father — has undone the calm arrogance of the man who assumed the house was already his. The black midriff and the fiery eyes are the mask of a man who has just discovered he is not in control.
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