Odyssey 4.774 · Book 4, lines 774–777
Antinous: keep it quiet
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Antinous — δαιμόνιοι, μύθους μὲν ὑπερφιάλους ἀλέασθε πάντας ὁμῶς, μή πού τις ἀπαγγείλῃσι καὶ εἴσω. ἀλλʼ ἄγε σιγῇ τοῖον ἀναστάντες τελέωμεν μῦθον, ὃ δὴ καὶ πᾶσιν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἤραρεν ἡμῖν.
Strange men, avoid these overweening words, all of you alike, lest someone report them even inside the house. Come, let us rise in silence and accomplish the plan, such a one as has pleased the hearts of us all.
Word by word
The setting
Antinous, ringleader of the suitors, answers the gloating. Their ambush of Telemachus depends on secrecy, and he warns the others to stop boasting aloud lest word reach Penelope — not knowing the herald Medon has already told her.
A note on this passage
Antinous, the suitors' leader, cuts off the loose talk. Keep such arrogant words to yourselves, all of you, or one of them may be carried inside to the house. Better to rise quietly and finish the plan they have all agreed on — the ambush waiting at sea. It is a captain hushing his crew.
The whole conspiracy hangs on a single fear: a word reaching the wrong ears. That is why he opens with daimonioi, 'you reckless men,' and why silence, not force, is his order. The irony is that the leak he dreads has already sprung — the herald Medon overheard this very plot and carried it to Penelope, whose prayer has just gone up. Antinous guards a secret the poem has already spent.
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