Odyssey 4.667 · Book 4, lines 667–668
A prayer for the boy's death
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Antinous — ἄρξει καὶ προτέρω κακὸν ἔμμεναι· ἀλλά οἱ αὐτῷ Ζεὺς ὀλέσειε βίην, πρὶν ἥβης μέτρον ἱκέσθαι.
He will begin to be a trouble even hereafter; but for him, may Zeus destroy his very might, before he reaches the measure of youth.
Word by word
The setting
Antinous turns from complaint to menace: Telemachus will only grow more dangerous, and he wishes the boy dead before he comes of age.
A note on this passage
Antinous states his fear and his wish in one breath: Telemachus will grow into a threat, so let Zeus kill him first — strike down his strength before he reaches ‘the measure of youth,’ the full manhood of a grown warrior.
The undercurrent is how nakedly the plot has turned to murder. Earlier the suitors merely wasted the house; now their leader prays for the heir's death. And he prays to Zeus — the god of guest and host, the very god whose law the suitors trample every day they feast in another man's hall. The prayer is a small blasphemy the speaker cannot hear.
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