| Odysseus | “I will do for you. I won’t forget a thing.” |
| Theban | “Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, master of exploits, man of pain, what now, what brings you here, forsaking the light of day to see this joyless kingdom of the dead? Stand back from the trench put up your sharp sword so I can drink the blood and tell you all the truth.” |
| Odysseus | “Surely the gods have spun this out as fate, the gods themselves. But tell me one more thing, and tell me clearly. I see the ghost of my long-lost mother here before me.” |
| Odysseus Mom | “Oh my son what brings you down to the world of death and darkness? You are still alive! It’s hard for the living to catch a glimpse of me… |
| Odysseus | “I had to venture down to the House of Death to consult the shade of Tiresias, seer of Thebes…” |
| Odysseus | “What form of death overcame you, what laid you low, some long slow illness? Or did Artemis showering arrows come with her painless shafts and bring you down?…. |
| Odysseus Mom | “She’s still waiting there in your halls, poor women, suffering so, her life an endless hardship like your own….his grief grows as he longs for your return. And I with the same grief, I died and met my fate.” |
| Odysseus | “Mother why not wait for me? How I long hold you! so even here, in the House of Death, we can fling our loving arms around each other, take some joy in the tears that numb the heart. Or is this just some wraith that great Persephone sends my way to make me ache with sorrow all the more?” |
| Odysseus Mom | “My son, My son, the luckiest man alive! This is no deception sent by Queen Persephone, this is just the way of mortals when we die…” |
| Queen Arete | “Phaecians! How does this man impress you now, his looks, his build, the balanced mind inside him? The stranger is my guest but each of you princes shares the honor here….” |
| Echeneus | “Friends, the words of our cobsiderate queen they never miss the mark or fail our expectations. So do as Arete says, through on Alcinous here depend all words and action.” |
| Alcinous | “Sure as I am alive and rule our island men who love their oars! Our guest, much as he longs for passage home, must say and wait it out here till tomorrow, till I can collect his whole array of parting gifts.” |
| Odysseus | “Alcinous, majesty, shining among your island people, if you would urge me now to stay here one whole year then speed me home weighed down with lordly gifts, I’d gladly have it so..” |
| Odysseus | “How terrible! Zeus from the vary start, the thunger king has hated the race of Atreus with a vengeance his trustiest weapon women’s twisted wiles. What armies of us died for the sake of Helen… Clytemnestra schemed your death while you were worlds away!” |
| Agamemnon Ghost | “So even your own wife never indulge her too far. Never reveal the whole truth, whatever you may know; just tell her a part of it, be sure to hide the rest. Not that you, Odysseus, will be murdered by your wife…” |
| Odysseus | “Atrides, why ask me that? I know nothing, whether he’s dead or alive. It’s wrong to lead you on idle words.” |
| Odysseus | “Achilles, son of Peleus, greatest of the Achaeans, I had to consult Tiresias, driven here by hopes he would help me through journey home to rocky Ithaca.” |
| Odysseus | “Ajax, son of noble Telamon, still determined, even in death, not once to forget that rage you train on me for those accursed arms?…” |
| Heracles | “Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus famed for exploits, luckless man, you too? Braving out a fate as harsh as the fate I bore, alive in the light of day?… |
| Who is she? She has twelve legs, all writhing, dangling down and six long swaying necks | Scylla |
| Odysseus | “Deadly Charybdis cant possible cut and run for her and still fight Scylla off when Scylla strikes my men? |
| Odysseus | “Friends… its wrong for only one or two to know the revelations that lovely Circe made to me alone…” |
| Eurylochus | “You’re a hard man, Odysseus. Your fighting spirit’s stronger than ours, your stamina never fails…” |
| Zeus | “Sun, you keep on shining among the deathless gods and mortal men across the good green earth. And as for the guilty ones, why….” |
| Helios | “Father Zeus! the rest of you blissful gods who never die punish them all that crew of Laertes’ son Odysseus what an outrage…” |
| Odysseus | “Eurylochus I’m one against all the upper hand is yours…” |
| Eurylochus | … |
The Odyssey Books 11& 12 Quotes
April 20, 2020