A wail of grief –
and his fond old nurse burst out in protest, sobbing:
"Why, dear child, what craziness got into your head?
Why bent on rambling over the face of the earth? –
a darling only son! Your father’s worlds away,
god’s own Odysseus, dead in some strange land.
And these brutes here, just wait, the moment you’re gone
they’ll all be scheming against you."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 399-401. Eurycleia pleads with Telemachus not to sail to Pylos in search of information about his missing father. She predicts – correctly – that as soon as he is gone the suitors will be scheming against him. This foreshadows the suitors’ plot to kill Telemachus. The passage also shows the great love Telemachus’ old nurse has for him and her loyalty to his family.