The Iliad Odysseus Quotes

Athena pleads with Odysseus to persuade men to stay and fight

Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus,
great tactician – what, is this the way?
All you Argives flying home to your fatherland,
tumbling into your oar-swept ships? Leaving Priam
and all the men of Troy a trophy to glory over,
Helen of Argos, Helen for whom so many Argives
lost their lives in Troy, far from native land!
No, don’t give up now. Range the Achaean ranks,
with your winning words hold back each man you find –
don’t let them haul their rolling ships to sea!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 201-210. As the Achaeans prepare to sail for home, Athena tells Odysseus to hold the men back from readying the ships. She pleads with him not to give Priam and the Trojans the glory of keeping Helen, for whom many Achaeans have died in Troy. She inspires him to appeal to the men to stay and fight the Trojans, in spite of their fears.

I tell you this, so help me it’s the truth:
if I catch you again blithering on this way,
let Odysseus’ head be wrenched off his shoulders
never again call me the father of Telemachus
if I don’t grab you, strip the clothing off you,
cloak, tunic and rags that wrap you private parts
and whip you howling naked back to the fast ships
out of the armies’ muster – whip you like a cur!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 302-308. Odysseus launches a verbal attack on Thersites before physically attacking him. Thersites, described as "the ugliest man who ever came to Troy" with a head full of obscenities, has angered Odysseus by telling the collected Greek armies that they should desert Agamemnon.
in the tenth we'll take her broad streets - Odysseus

Calchas swiftly revealed the will of Zeus:
"Why struck dumb now, my long-hatred Achaeans?
Zeus who rules the world has shown us an awesome sign,
an event long in the future, late to come to birth
but the fame of that great work will never die.
As the snake devoured the sparrow with her brood,
eight and the mother made the ninth, she’d borne them all,
so we will fight in Troy that many years and then,
then in the tenth we’ll take her broad streets."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 381-389. Odysseus shows his credentials as a leader and hero by trying to rally the troops to fight, after they indicate their desire to return home. In this passage he quotes the prophesy by Calchas that the Achaean troops would fight in Troy for nine years and in the tenth they would be victorious by taking her streets. Before they reached Troy, the army witnessed a snake crawl up a tree to swallow eight baby sparrows and their mother in a nest, then turn to stone. Calchas interpreted this as a sign that Troy is fated to fall after the ninth year of battle. Odysseus’s speech succeeds in ralling the armies and Calchas’s interpretation turns out to be correct. The snake and the sparrows is one of the many epic similes used by Homer in the Iliad.

But when Odysseus sprang up, the famed tactician
would just stand there, staring down, hard,
his eyes fixed on the ground,
never shifting his scepter back and forth,
clutching it stiff and still like a mindless man.
You’d think him a sullen fellow or just plain fool.
But when he let loose that great voice from his chest
and the words came piling on like a driving winter blizzard –
then no man alive could rival Odysseus! Odysseus…
we no longer gazed in wonder at his looks.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 3, lines 260-269. Antenor, one of the wisest of the Trojan elders, is speaking to King Priam of Troy about how commanding the great Achaean warrior Odysseus is. Remarking on Odysseus’s incredible speaking ability, he says that no man alive can rival him. We are told that words come piling on like a driving winter blizzard (simile).

Now what’s this, Atrides,
this talk that slips through your clenched teeth?
How can you say I hang back from the fighting
when Argive units spur the slashing god of war
against these Trojan horsemen? Just you watch,
if you’ll take the time and care to taste some action,
watch Telemachus’ loving father lock and fight
with enemy champions, stallion-breaking Trojans.
You and your bluster – you are talking nonsense!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 406-414. Odysseus angrily responds to Agamemnon’s criticism that he is not giving his best in battle and is hanging back from the fighting. His pride hurt and honor offended, he accuses Agamemnon of bluster and speaking nonsense.

Enraged at his friend’s death Odysseus sprang in fury,
helmed in fiery bronze he plowed through the front
and charging the enemy, glaring left and right
he hurled his spear – a glinting brazen streak –
and the Trojans gave ground, scattering back,
panicking there before his whirling shaft –
a direct hit! Odysseus struck Democoon.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 570-576. When his friend Leucus is killed, an enraged Odysseus runs straight to the front lines and kills King Priam’s son Democoon to avenge Leucus’s death. This demonstrates the great fighting skills and heroic courage of Odysseus in the heat of battle.

"Welcome! Look, dear friends have come our way –
I must be sorely needed now – my dearest friends
in all the Achaean armies, even in my anger."
So Prince Achilles hailed and led them in,
sat them down on settles with purple carpets.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 237-241. Achilles welcomes the embassy of Odysseus, Great Ajax and Phoenix to his tent. They are there on behalf of Agamemnon to try to heal the quarrel between him and Achilles and to offer him gifts. Despite his anger at Agamemnon, Achilles is still on friendly terms with the king’s ambassadors.

Why must we battle Trojans,
men of Argas? Why did he muster an army, lead us here,
that son of Atreus? Why, why in the world if not
for Helen with her loose and lustrous hair?
Are they the only men alive who love their wives,
those sons of Atreus? Never! Any decent man,
a man with sense, loves his own, cares for his own
as deeply as I, I loved that woman with all my heart,
though I won her like a trophy with my spear…
But now that he’s torn my honor from my hands,
robbed me, lied to me – don’t let him try me now.
I know him too well – he’ll never win me over!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 409-420. Achilles questions the motives for the Trojan war, as Odysseus attempts to bring him back to the fighting. If the war is for Helen, are Agamemnon and Menelaus the only men alive who love their wives, Achilles asks Odysseus? Any decent man loves his own, he says, accusing Agamemnon of robbing him of his honor and the woman he loves with all his heart, Briseis.

they sprang in pursuit
as a pair of rip-tooth hounds
bred for the hunt and flushing fawn or hare
through a woody glen keep closing for the kill,
nonstop and the prey goes screaming on ahead –
so Odysseus raider of cities and Diomedes
cut him off from his own lines.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 10, lines 420-426. Trojan spy Dolon is chased and cut off from his own lines by Odysseus and Diomedes, who are also on a spying mission. The Achaean duo are compared to predatory hounds chasing a fawn or hare, in an epic simile.

"Take us alive, Atrides, take a ransom worth our lives!"
…So they cried to the king, cries for mercy,
but only heard a merciless voice in answer:
"Cunning Antimachus! So you’re that man’s sons?
Once in the Trojan council he ordered Menelaus,
there on an embassy joined by King Odysseus,
murdered right on the spot – no safe-conduct
back to the land of Argas. You’re his sons?
Now pay for your father’s outrage, blood for blood!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 153-165. Agamemnon is killing many Trojans on the battlefield. No pity is shown to the brothers Pisander and Hippolochus by Agamemnon, who believes in the ancient Greek justice of blood revenge, that sons should pay for the sins of their fathers. He cuts them down mercilessly because their father ordered Menelaus and Odysseus to be killed when they were on an embassy to the Trojan council.

Then both went thrashing into the lines to make a slaughter
as two wild boars bristling, ramping back for the kill,
fling themselves on the yelping packs that hunt them –
back they whirled on attack and laid the Trojans low
while Achaeans just in flight from Hector’s onset
leapt at the chance to gather second wind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 375-380. As the Greek army begins to retreat, Odysseus and Diomedes decide to make a stand. They heroically fling themselves at the Trojans like "two wild boars" going in for the kill, as described in an epic simile. Their action inspires the other Achaeans.

That left the famous spearman Odysseus on his own,
not a single Argive comrade standing by his side
since panic seized them all. Unnerved himself,
Odysseus probed his own great fighting heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 473-476. When his friend Diomedes is hit in the foot by an arrow from Paris, Odysseus decides to remain on the battlefield long enough to allow him escape. All of his fellow soldiers have fled, leaving him alone, and the Trojans are coming. But Odysseus shows her heroic qualities by staying in the fight.

like hounds and lusty hunters closing, ringing
a wild boar till out of his thicket lair he crashes,
whetting his white tusks sharp in his bent, wrenching jaws
and they rush in to attack and under the barks and shouts
you can hear the gnash of tusks but the men stand firm –
terrible, murderous as he is – so the Trojans ringed
Odysseus dear to Zeus, rushing him straight on.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 490-496. The Trojan soldiers attack Odysseus, who has become isolated from his men. In an extended simile, he is compared to a wild boar surrounded by hounds and hunters. He is also said to be dear to the father of the gods Zeus.

they found Odysseus
dear to Zeus but round him Trojans thronged
like tawny jackals up in the mountains swarming
round a horned stag just wounded – a hunter’s hit him
with one fast shaft from his bow and the stag’s escaped,
sprinting at top speed so long as his blood runs warm
and the spring in his knees still lasts…
But soon as the swift arrow saps his strength
the ravening carrion packs begin their feasting
off on a ridge in twilight woods until some god,
some power drives a lion down against them-claw-mad
and the panicked jackals scatter, the lion rends their prey.
So packed around Odysseus skilled and quick to maneuver
swarmed the brave bulk of Trojans – but still the hero
kept on lunging, spearing, keeping death at bay.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 556-570. Menelaus and Great Ajax find Odysseus surrounding by Trojans, but heroically managing to keep death at bay. In an epic simile comparing him to a wounded stag surrounded by jackals, Odysseus is depicted as a great warrior with steely resistance and determination. The fact that Zeus holds him dear also helps his cause.

You fill me with contempt –
what are you saying? With the forces poised to clash
you tell us to haul our oar-swept vessels out to sea?
Just so one more glory can crown these Trojans –
god help us, they have beaten us already –
and the scales of headlong death can drag us down.
Achaean troops will never hold the line, I tell you,
not while the long ships are being hauled to sea.
They’ll look left and right – where can they run? –
and fling their lust for battle to the winds. Then,
commander of armies, your plan will kill us all!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 14, lines 117-127. Odysseus attacks the weakness of Agamamnon’s leadership. He believes he is a terrible commander, because time and again he considers quitting the war. His troops will never hold the line while the ships are being hauled to sea and one more glory given to the Trojans, Odysseus warns. Odysseus expresses contempt for Agamemnon, whose plan he predicts will end up killing them all.

Now fighting men will sicken of battle quickly:
the more dead husks the bronze strews on the ground
the sparser the harvest then, when Zeus almighty
tips his scales and the tide of battle turns –
the great steward on high who rules our mortal wars.
You want the men to grieve for the dead by starving?
Impossible. Too many falling, day after day – battalions!
When could we find a breathing space from fasting?
No. We must steel our hearts. Bury our dead,
with tears for the day they die, not one day more.
And all those left alive, after the hateful carnage,
remember food and drink – so all the more fiercely
we can fight our enemies, nonstop, no mercy,
durable as the bronze that wraps our bodies.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 263-276. Odysseus says this to Achilles, in a bid to calm him. Achilles demands that the army go to war at once, but Odysseus persuades him to let the army eat and rest first as they are tired and hungry. Soldiers cannot grieve for the dead by starving and will fight more fiercely if fed, he insists. Achilles himself refuses to eat until he has killed Hector and avenged his friend Patroclus.

Ajax shot ahead
with quick Odysseus coming right behind him, close
as the weaver’s rod to a well-sashed woman’s breast
when she deftly pulls it toward her, shooting the spool
across the warp, still closer, pressing her breast –
so close Odysseus sprinted, hot on Ajax’ heels,
feet hitting his tracks before the dust could settle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 23, lines 843-849. Here Homer uses an epic simile referring to the act of weaving fabric, to describe Odysseus closing in on Little Ajax in the footrace during the funeral games to celebrate the memory of Petroclus.
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