The Odyssey Theoclymenus Quotes

"Just like you, I too have left my land –
I because I killed a man of my own tribe.
But he has many brothers and kin in Argos,
stallion-land, who rule the plains in force.
Fleeing death at their hands, a dismal fate,
I am a fugitive now,
doomed to wander across this mortal world."
…"So desperate!" thoughtful Telemachus exclaimed.
"How could I drive you from my ship? Come sail with us,
we’ll tend you at home, with all we can provide."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 15, lines 303-309. Telemachus offers hospitality to a complete stranger, when he invites the fugitive seer Theoclymenus on board his ship. The exiled Theoclymenus has fled his homeland because he killed a man there.

"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.

"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.
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