The Odyssey

by Homer

1 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns 2 driven time and again off course, once he had plundered 3 the hallowed heights of Troy. 4 Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, 6 fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home. But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove — the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,

“Ah how shameless —the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves, with their own reckless ways, 40 compound their pains beyond their proper share.

The swaggering suitors clustered, milling round him, welcome words on their lips, and murder in their hearts.

They came at his summons, rising from the games and now, bustling into the well-constructed palace, flinging down their cloaks on a chair or bench, they butchered hulking sheep and fatted goats, full-grown hogs and a young cow from the herd, preparing for their feast.

And now at last the king and loyal swineherd, drawing near the palace, halted just outside as the lyre’s rippling music drifted round them

The man who’d borne long years abroad replied, “Well I know. Remember? There’s sense in this old head. You go in, you first, while I stay here behind. Stones and blows and I are hardly strangers. 310 My heart is steeled by now, I’ve had my share of pain in the waves and wars. Add this to the total. Bring the trial on.

You’d grudge your servant a pinch of salt from your own larder, you who lounge at the next man’s board but lack the heart to tear a crust of bread and hand it on to me, though there’s god’s plenty here.”

True, this very month —just as the old moon dies and the new moon rises into life —Odysseus will return!”

Eurycleia set him down on the old man’s knees as he finished dinner, urging him, “Autolycus, you must find a name for your daughter’s darling son. The baby comes as the answer to her prayers.” “You, my daughter, and you, my son-in-law,” Autolycus replied, 460 “give the boy the name I tell you now. Just as I have come from afar, creating pain for many — men and women across the good green earth — 463 so let his name be Odysseus . . . the Son of Pain, a name he’ll earn in full.

Destruction is clear for each and every suitor; not a soul escapes his death and doom.”