The Odyssey Foreshadowing Quotes

"Look, Telemachus,
the will of god just winged that bird on your right!
Why, the moment I saw it, here before my eyes,
I knew it was a sign. No line more kingly than yours
in all of Ithaca – yours will reign forever!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 15, lines 594-598. The seer Theoclymenus interprets a bird sign after a hawk flies past on the right with a struggling dove clenched in his claws. The hawk rips the dove’s feathers out and they drift down to earth between the ship and Telemachus. It is a sign that Odysseus will return as king of Ithaca and Telemachus’ inheritance will be secured, Theoclymenus prophesies.

"Would I were young as you, to match my spirit now,
or I were the son of great Odysseus, or the king himself
returned from all his roving – there’s still room for hope!
Then let some foreigner lop my head off if I failed
to march right into Odysseus’ royal halls
and kill them all. And what if I went down,
crushed by their numbers – I, fighting alone?
I’d rather die, cut down in my own house
than have to look on at their outrage day by day."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 16, lines 111-119. Appearing in disguise to his son Telemachus, Odysseus-the-beggar speaks about how he would kill all of Penelope’s suitors if he were young and noble. He hasn’t yet revealed himself to his own son, but continues to lie about his identity. This is because he is unsure of who he can trust. Odysseus’ deadly warning about the suitors is foreshadowing of how they will all be slaughtered in Odysseus’ final battle.

"Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, old campaigner,
now is the time, now tell your son the truth.
Hold nothing back, so the two of you can plot
the suitors’ doom and then set out for town.
I myself won’t lag behind you long
I’m blazing for a battle!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 16, lines 188-193. Athena signals Odysseus and tells him that it is time to reveals his identity to his son so that they can plot the suitors’ doom. The goddess indicates that she is ready to join the battle. We have an example of foreshadowing here of what will happen to the suitors.

"If the brazen suitors cut me down in the palace –
off guard – and carve apart my father’s whole estate,
I’d rather you yourself, or one of his friends here,
keep those gifts and get some pleasure from them.
But if I can bring down slaughter on that crew,
you send the gifts to my house – we’ll share the joy."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 83-88. Telemachus tells his crewman Piraeus not to bring to the palace the gifts that Menelaus gave to the prince. He fears that the suitors will steal them if they succeed in killing him. But if he can slaughter the suitors, then Piraeus is to bring the gifts to Telemachus’ house and they will share them. There is foreshadowing here of what will happen to the suitors.

"How shameful! That’s the bed
of a brave man of war they’d like to crawl inside,
those spineless, craven cowards!
Weak as the doe that beds down her fawns
in a mighty lion’s den – her newborn sucklings –
then trails off to the mountain spurs and grassy bends
to graze her fill, but back the lion comes to his own lair
and the master deals both fawns a ghastly bloody death,
just what Odysseus will deal that mob – ghastly death."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 132-140. Telemachus repeats to Penelope what Menelaus said to him about the suitors attempting to crawl inside the marriage bed of a brave warrior. Menelaus makes a prediction that Odysseus will punish the suitors with "ghastly death," foreshadowing their bloody end at the hands of Odysseus. In an epic simile, Penelope’s suitors are compared to fawns and Odysseus to a powerful lion into whose lair they have stumbled.

At her last words Telemachus shook with a lusty sneeze
like a thunderclap resounding up and down the halls.
The queen was seized with laughter, calling out
to Eumaeus winged words: "Quickly, go!
Bring me this stranger now, face-to-face!
You hear how my son sealed all I said with a sneeze?
So let death come down with grim finality on these suitors –
one and all – not a single man escape his sudden doom!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 602-612. Telemachus responds to Penelope’s prayer that Odysseus might return and put things right with the suitors. In a simile, we are told that he sneezes "like a thunderclap." The is an omen that what Penelope prays for will happen, because the god of lightning Zeus is known to send thundercaps as devine signs. There is an example of irony when Penelope asks Eumeaus to fetch the stranger, who happens to be her husband. There is also foreshadowing when she talks about the death and doom of the suitors.

"Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth,
our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man.
So long as the gods grant him power, spring in his knees,
he thinks he will never suffer affliction down the years.
But then, when the happy gods bring on the long hard times,
bear them he must, against his will, and steel his heart.
Our lives, our mood and mind as we pass across the earth,
turn as the days turn."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 150-157. Odysseus offers this warning of the dangers of hubris to suitor Amphinomus shortly after defeating "Beggar King" Irus in a fight. He paints a picture of man being the weakest creature who only prospers at the will and whims of the gods. When the gods bring hard times, man must endure them. Odysseus is saying that the gods are more powerful than man and his fate is controlled by them. The Greek hero’s speech reflects a maturity and understanding of what he has learned from his own perilous and difficult journey. His carefully chosen words help to maintain his beggar disguise and made-up backstory – of being once a wealthy warrior who plundered foreign lands until captured by his enemies. They also foreshadow a similar great fall for the suitors, who have plundered another man’s house and wealth.

"I too seemed destined to be a man of fortune once
and a wild wicked swath I cut, indulged my lust for violence,
staking all on my father and my brothers.
Look at me now.
And so, I say, let no man ever be lawless all his life,
just take in peace what gifts the gods will send."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 159-163. Odysseus-the-beggar appears to be showing humility and a recognition of his own past mistakes in this speech to Amphinomus. He warns that people should respect the gods and obey the laws or they will face punishment. The passage foreshadows the suitors’ own doom.

Amphinomus made his way back through the hall,
his heart sick with anguish, shaking his head,
fraught with grave forebodings…
but not even so could he escape his fate.
Even then Athena had bound him fast to death
at the hands of Prince Telemachus and his spear.
Now back he went to the seat that he’d left empty.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 174-180. Amphinomus is left shaken by Odysseus-the-beggar’s words that he should leave Odysseus’ house if he wants to save himself. However, he fails to heed the warning and goes back to his seat in the hall with a sense of foreboding. He has reason to worry, for we learn that Athena has fated him to die at the end of Telemachus’ spear.

"You wait,
you bitch" – the hardened veteran flashed a killing look.
"I’ll go straight to the prince with your foul talk.
The prince will chop you to pieces here and now!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 380-383. Odysseus gives this warning to Melantho after she confronts and taunts the king, while he is disguised as a beggar in the palace. Melantho is maid to Penelope, who treats her like her own daughter, and in the end she pays for her disloyalty with her life. This passage is foreshadowing of her execution by hanging by Prince Telemachus.

"You’re sick with pride, you brutal fool.
No doubt you count yourself a great, powerful man
because you sport with a puny crowd, ill-bred to boot.
If only Odysseus came back home and stood right here,
in a flash you’d find those doors – broad as they are –
too cramped for your race to safety through the porch!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 431-436. When Eurymachus makes fun of and insults Odysseus, asking if he wants to work for him, the disguised king accuses Eurymachus of being sick with pride. Odysseus-the-beggar sounds an ominous warning that there will be no safe escape for the suitors when Odysseus returns. Foreshadowed here is Odysseus’ deadly and final battle with the suitors.

"What’s possessed you, woman? Why lay into me? Such abuse!
Just because I’m filthy, because I wear such rags,
roving round the country, living hand-to-mouth.
But it’s fate that drives me on:
that’s the lot of beggars, homeless drifters.
I too once lived in a lofty house that men admired;
rolling in wealth, I’d often give to a vagabond like myself,
whoever he was, whatever need had brought him to my door.
And crowds of servants I had, and lots of all it takes
to live the life of ease, to make men call you rich.
But Zeus ruined it all – god’s will, no doubt.
So beware, woman, or one day you may lose it all,
all your glitter that puts your work-mates in the shade."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 77-89. Disguised beggar Odysseus tackles housemaid Melantho over her abuse of him because he is a vagabond. He says that he once was wealthy and lived in a big house, but fate and Zeus reduced him to beggary. He warns Melantho that her fortunes could be reversed one day too. Melantho’s humiliating death is foreshadowed here.

"Make no mistake, you brazen, shameless bitch,
none of your ugly work escapes me either –
you will pay for it with your life, you will!
How well you knew – you heard from my own lips –
that I meant to probe this stranger in our house
and ask about my husband…my heart breaks for him."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 99-104. Penelope scolds her disloyal slave Melantho, whom she has raised like she her own daughter. Melantho has been sleeping with one of the suitors and has been abusing Odysseus-the-beggar. Penelope is fuming with anger over how Melantho has mistreated the beggar, as she is anxious to hear news of her husband from him. Ever loyal to Odysseus, she confesses that her heart is breaking without him. This passage shows the disrespect the servants have shown in the absence of their master. It also foreshadows death.

"And so the man is safe,
As you can see, and he’s coming home, soon,
he’s close, close at hand –
he won’t be severed long from kin and country,
no not now. I give you my solemn, binding oath.
I swear by Zeus, the first, the greatest god –
By Odysseus’ hearth, where I have come for help:
All will come to pass, I swear exactly as I say.
True, this very month – just as the old moon dies
And the new moon rises into life – Odysseus will return!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 344-351. Odysseus-the-beggar tries to comfort Penelope with assurances that her husband is safe and close by. He predicts and swears by Zeus that Odysseus will return as the old moon dies and the new moon rises that very month. This is one of the poem’s many examples of dramatic irony, with the audience knowing more than the character. We know that the visitor is Odysseus, but Penelope believes he is just a beggar. This passage also foreshadows the Greek hero’s return home.

"But down from a mountain swooped this great hook-beaked eagle,
yes, and he snapped their necks and killed them one and all
and they lay in heaps throughout the halls while he,
back to the clear blue sky he soared at once.
But I wept and wailed – only a dream, of course –
and our well-groomed ladies came and clustered round me,
sobbing, stricken: the eagle killed my geese."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 606-612. Penelope asks Odysseus-the-beggar to interpret a dream she had about twenty geese she kept at her house that ended up being killed by an eagle. The geese and eagle are metaphors for the suitors and Odysseus, he explains to her. The dream foreshadows the suitors’ fate.

And there Odysseus lay…
plotting within himself the suitors’ death –
awake, alert, as the women slipped from the house,
the maids who whored in the suitors’ beds each night,
tittering, linking arms and frisking as before.
The master’s anger rose inside his chest,
torn in thought, debating, head and heart –
should he up and rush them, kill them one and all
or let them rut with their lovers one last time?

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 6-14. Odysseus plots his revenge on the suitors and the maids who are sleeping with them. He sees the maids sneaking out at night to sleep with the suitors and is outraged by their behavior. He debates whether to kill them all now or wait for a better time. He is equally furious with the maids, believing them to be just as bad as the suitors. This foreshadows that Odysseus will exact revenge not only on the suitors, but on the maids who are sleeping with them as well.

The heart inside him growled low with rage,
as a bitch mounting over her weak, defenseless puppies
growls, facing a stranger, bristling for a showdown –
so he growled from his depths, hackles rising at their outrage.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 15-18. An angry and vengeful Odysseus plots the downfall of the suitors and the servant girls who are sleeping with them. An epic simile, foreshadowing their punishment, compares his raging heart to a growling bitch confronting a stranger to protect her puppies.

Third to arrive was Philoetius, that good cowherd,
prodding in for the crowd a heifer and fat goats.
Boatmen had brought them over from the mainland,
crews who ferry across all travelers too,
whoever comes for passage.
Under the echoing porch he tethered all heads well
and then approached the swineherd, full of questions:
"Who’s this stranger, Eumaeus, just come to the house?
What roots does the man claim – who are his people?
Where are his blood kin? his father’s fields?
Poor beggar. But what a build – a royal king’s!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 203-213. Philoetius arrives in the palace with a heifer and goats for the suitors’ feast. The kindly cowherd shows concern for the "poor beggar" Odysseus – this serves to highlight the unkindness of goatherd Melanthius just moments before. When Philoetius remarks that the beggar looks like a king, little does he know how right he is. This is foreshadowing of Odysseus’ restoration as king of Ithaca.

Now as they spoke and urged each other on,
and once more the suitors were plotting certain doom
for the young prince – suddenly, banking high on the left
an omen flew past, an eagle clutching a trembling dove.
And Amphinomus rose in haste to warn them all,
"My friends, we’ll never carry off this plot
to kill the prince. Let’s concentrate on feasting."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 267-273. As the suitors discuss the killing of Telemachus, their murderous plot is stopped in its tracks by an omen forecasting death and destruction. An eagle flies by with a dove in its jaws. Amphinomus at once recognizes the warning and urges them to abandon their plot and just carry on feasting. But it is too late, as their own doom is foreshadowed here.

So he vowed
and Athena set off uncontrollable laughter in the suitors,
crazed them out of their minds – mad, hysterical laughter
seemed to break from the jaws of strangers, not their own,
and the meat they were eating oozed red with blood –
tears flooded their eyes, hearts possessed by grief.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 384-389. When Telemachus refuses the suitors’ request that he persuade his mother to marry again, Athena makes the suitors laugh hysterically at the prince’s words. In doing so, Athena gives Odysseus further reason to seek revenge. The killing of the suitors is also foreshadowed here, as their meat oozes blood, their eyes flood with tears and their hearts fill with grief.

"Poor men, what terror is this that overwhelms you so?
Night shrouds your heads, your faces, down to your knees –
cries of mourning are bursting into fire – cheeks rivering tears –
the walls and the handsome crossbeams dripping dank with blood!
Ghosts, look, thronging the entrance, thronging the court,
go trooping down to the world of death and darkness!
The sun is blotted out of the sky – look there –
a lethal mist spreads all across the earth!"
At that
they all broke into peals of laughter aimed at the seer.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 391-399. The seer Theoclymenus gives an ominous warning to the suitors. He points to bad omens, foreshadowing the suitors’ deaths: walls dripping with blood, ghosts at the door, a lethal mist blocking out the sun. But the prideful suitors arrogantly dismiss his warning and respond with derisive laughter.

"Oh I can see it now –
the disaster closing on you all! There’s no escaping it,
no way out – not for a single one of you suitors,
wild reckless fools, plotting outrage here,
the halls of Odysseus, great and strong as a god!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 410-414. As the suitors mock and laugh at Theoclymenus’ warning, the seer speaks up about the disastrous and inescapable future fated for them. His prophecy foreshadows the suitors’ deaths. In a simile he compares Odysseus’ strength to that of a god.

"Friends,
I can’t bend it. Take it, someone – try.
Here is a bow to rob our best of life and breath,
all our best contenders! Still, better be dead
than live on here, never winning the prize
that tempts us all – forever in pursuit,
burning with expectation every day."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 172-178. The first suitor to try to bend back Odysseus’ bow and string it is Leodes, but he fails. Frustrated, he speaks about life and death, foreshadowing the death of the suitors at the hands of Odysseus and his bow.

Horror swept through the suitors, faces blanching white,
and Zeus cracked the sky with a bolt, his blazing sign,
and the great man who had borne so much rejoiced at last
that the son of cunning Cronus flung that omen down for him.
He snatched a winged arrow lying bare on the board –
the rest still bristled deep inside the quiver,
soon to be tasted by all the feasters there.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 459-465. With none of the suitors capable of stringing Odysseus’ bow and shooting an arrow through all the axes, Odysseus-the-beggar manages to do so. The suitors’ faces turn white with fear and Zeus sends down a thunderbolt as an omen. We are told that the arrows in Odysseus’ quiver are bristling to be tasted by all the feasters. This suggests the deserved end that will be served up to the suitors for their gluttony and greed in Odysseus’ house.
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