Book II · Episode 2 of 4
Omen and Scorn
Eagle omen, Halitherses’ warning unheeded
Scenes
- Eagle Omen — Zeus’ eagles clash, portend Odysseus
- Two eagles wheel down from a mountaintop
- Tear at each other’s necks with talons
- Then veer off together across Ithaca
- Halitherses reads it as doom for suitors
- His prophecy of return proved true
- Eurymachus Scoffs — Eurymachus mocks, Telemachus seeks ship
- Eurymachus insists Odysseus died abroad
- He threatens the seer with punishment
- Urges sending Penelope to her father, dowered
- Names Sparta and Pylos as destinations
- Waits a year, then lets her remarry
- Mentor’s Rebuke — Mentor rebukes Ithacans, Leiocritus ends it
- Mentor once kept Odysseus’ household in trust
- He blames the silent majority, not suitors
- Leiocritus boasts even Odysseus would fail
- He predicts Telemachus will never sail
- People disperse, suitors return to the palace