Homer · tr. Bryant, 1871

Book XV · Episode 2 of 4

Omens on the Road

Omens and a seer mark the journey

Scenes

  1. Eagle and Prophecy — Helen reads the eagle omen as return
    • Menelaus sends greetings to Nestor
    • Wishes he could greet his father too
    • Eagle sweeps past clutching a tame goose
    • The travelers watch, heartened by the sign
    • Foretells vengeance on the suitors soon
  2. Journey to Pylos — Telemachus reaches Pylos, avoids Nestor
    • Lodges overnight at Diocles’s house in Pherae
    • Dreads delay from Nestor’s hospitality
    • Peisistratus turns the chariot to shore
    • Unloads Menelaus’s gifts into the ship
    • Urges him to embark right away
  3. Melampus’s Line — Peisistratus leaves, poet traces Melampus
    • Telemachus pours an offering to Athena
    • A fugitive stranger seeks passage aboard
    • Melampus escaped bondage under Phylacus
    • Amphiaraus dies at Thebes through betrayal
    • Polyphides now the foremost living prophet
  4. Theoclymenus Taken Aboard — Fugitive Theoclymenus begs passage aboard
    • Invokes the offering, asks Telemachus’s name
    • Telemachus names himself as Odysseus’ son
    • Confesses to killing a kinsman in Argos
    • Flees the dead man’s avenging brothers
    • He broods over the risk of ambush