From the Pages of the Odyssey

Tell of the storm-tossed man, O Muse, who wandered long after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. (page 1)

 

“Yet is my heart distressed for wise Odysseus, hapless man, who, long cut off from friends, is meeting hardship upon a sea-encircled island, the navel of the sea.” (page 2)

 

“Few sons are like their fathers; most are worse, few better.”

(page 18)

 

“Many a grief the son of an absent father meets at home, when other helpers are not by. So with Telemachus; the one is gone, and others there are none in all the land to ward off ill.” (page 40)

 

Athene passed away, off to Olympus, where they say the dwelling of the gods stands fast forever. Never with winds is it disturbed, nor by the rain made wet, nor does the snow come near; but everywhere the upper air spreads cloudless, and a bright radiance plays over all; and there the blessed gods are happy all their days. (page 71)

 

“Better to be the hireling of a stranger, and serve a man of mean estate whose living is but small, than be the ruler over all these dead and gone.” (page 142)

 

“Friends, hitherto we have not been untried in danger.”

(page 152)

 

“Afterwards a man finds pleasure in his pains, when he has suffered long and wandered long.” (page 191)

“Half the value of a man far-seeing Zeus destroys when the slave’s lot befalls him!” (page 215)

 

Odysseus aimed an arrow and hit him in the throat; right through his tender neck the sharp point passed. He sank down sideways; from his hand the goblet fell when he was hit, and at once from his nose ran a thick stream of human blood. (page 271)

 

“For all humankind immortal ones shall make a joyous song in praise of steadfast Penelope.” (page 297)