Homer

Name: The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI
Author: Homer

Summary

“The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI”, published in 1791, is a work by Homer. It explores elements such as bow, Pow'r and rings.

Quotes from The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (Homer)

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Now suitors! prove yourselves with this huge bow
Of wide-renown’d Ulysses; he who draws
Easiest the bow, and who his arrow sends
Through twice six rings, he takes me to his home,
And I must leave this mansion of my youth
Plenteous, magnificent, which, doubtless, oft
I shall remember even in my dreams.
So saying, she bade Eumæus lay the bow
Before them, and the twice six rings of steel.
He wept, received them, and obey’d; nor wept
The herdsman less, seeing the bow which erst
His Lord had occupied; when at their tears
Indignant, thus, Antinoüs began. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ But come, ye suitors! since the prize is such,
A woman like to whom none can be found
This day in all Achaia; on the shores
Of sacred Pylus; in the cities proud
Of Argos or Mycenæ; or even here
In Ithaca; or yet within the walls
Of black Epirus; and since this yourselves
Know also, wherefore should I speak her praise?
Come then, delay not, waste not time in vain
Excuses, turn not from the proof, but bend
The bow, that thus the issue may be known. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Cherish’d, that he should bend, himself, the bow,
And pass the rings; yet was he destin’d first
Of all that company to taste the steel
Of brave Ulysses’ shaft, whom in that house
He had so oft dishonour’d, and had urged
So oft all others to the like offence.
Amidst them, then, the sacred might arose
Of young Telemachus, who thus began.
Saturnian Jove questionless hath deprived
Me of all reason. My own mother, fam’d
For wisdom as she is, makes known to all
Her purpose to abandon this abode
And follow a new mate, while, heedless, I
Trifle and laugh as I were still a child. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Is man’s concern alone, and shall be mine
Especially, since I am master here.
She heard astonish’d, and the prudent speech
Reposing of her son deep in her heart,
Withdrew; then mounting with her female train
To her superior chamber, there she wept
Her lost Ulysses, till Minerva bathed
With balmy dews of sleep her weary lids.
And now the noble swine-herd bore the bow
Toward Ulysses, but with one voice all
The suitors, clamorous, reproved the deed,
Of whom a youth, thus, insolent exclaim’d.
Thou clumsy swine-herd, whither bear’st the bow,
Delirious wretch? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Telemachus as loud assail’d his ear.
Friend! forward with the bow; or soon repent
That thou obey’dst the many. I will else
With huge stones drive thee, younger as I am,
Back to the field. My strength surpasses thine.
I would to heav’n that I in force excell’d
As far, and prowess, every suitor here!
So would I soon give rude dismission hence
To some, who live but to imagine harm.
He ceased, whose words the suitors laughing heard.
And, for their sake, in part their wrath resign’d
Against Telemachus; then through the hall
Eumæus bore, and to Ulysses’ hand
Consign’d the bow ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ None robs thee of thy share, thou witnessest
Our whole discourse, which, save thyself alone,
No needy vagrant is allow’d to hear.
Thou art befool’d by wine, as many have been,
Wide-throated drinkers, unrestrain’d by rule. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Icarius’ prudent daughter! none suspects
That thou wilt wed with him; a mate so mean
Should ill become thee; but we fear the tongues
Of either sex, lest some Achaian say
Hereafter, (one inferior far to us)
Ah! how unworthy are they to compare
With him whose wife they seek! to bend his bow
Pass’d all their pow’r, yet this poor vagabond,
Arriving from what country none can tell,
Bent it with ease, and shot through all the rings. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Pirithoüs, made the valiant Centaur mad
Eurytion, at the Lapithæan feast. [6]
He drank to drunkenness, and being drunk,
Committed great enormities beneath
Pirithoüs’ roof, and such as fill’d with rage
The Hero-guests; who therefore by his feet
Dragg’d him right through the vestibule, amerced
Of nose and ears, and he departed thence
Provoked to frenzy by that foul disgrace,
Whence war between the human kind arose
And the bold Centaurs—but he first incurred
By his ebriety that mulct severe.
Great evil, also, if thou bend the bow,
To thee I prophesy ”

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Source: Wikisource

Homer, The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (1791)

“ Penelope proposes to the suitors a contest with the bow, herself the prize. They prove unable to bend the bow; when Ulysses having with some difficulty possessed himself of it, manages it with the utmost ease, and dispatches his arrow through twelve rings erected for the trial. ”

Homer

Summary

Quotes from The Odyssey of Homer — Book XXI (Homer)

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