Odyssey 4.673 · Book 4, lines 673–674
The suitors rise in assent
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ὣς ἔφαθʼ, οἱ δʼ ἄρα πάντες ἐπῄνεον ἠδʼ ἐκέλευον. αὐτίκʼ ἔπειτʼ ἀνστάντες ἔβαν δόμον εἰς Ὀδυσῆος.
So he spoke, and they all approved and urged it on. Then at once, rising up, they went to the house of Odysseus.
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The setting
Antinous has finished. The narrator turns from the speech to the suitors' response and their move back to the house of Odysseus.
A note on this passage
A formulaic hinge: ‘so he spoke,’ the crowd assents, they get up and go. The plan to murder Telemachus meets no objection at all — every suitor approves it, and they walk off together to wait in the house.
The undercurrent is the unanimity. Homer does not single out a dissenter here; the whole company signs on to the ambush. And the house they return to is named — the house of Odysseus. They will plot the son's death under the roof of the father, at the father's hearth, eating the father's food. The address itself is the accusation.
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