The Odyssey Courage and Bravery Quotes

Athena in The Odyssey

"While I myself go down to Ithaca, rouse his son
to a braver pitch, inspire his heart with courage
to summon the flowing-haired Achaeans to full assembly,
speak his mind to all those suitors, slaughtering on and on
his droves of sheep and shambling longhorn cattle.
Next I will send him off to Sparta and sandy Pylos,
there to learn of his dear father’s journey home.
Perhaps he will hear some news and make his name
throughout the mortal world."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 104-112. Young Telemachus needs courage to confront Penelope’s greedy suitors who feast on his animals, and to go on a journey to find his father. In this passage Athena announces that she will travel to Ithaca to persuade Telemachus to do these very things.

"But you, I urge you,
think how to drive these suitors from your halls.
Come now, listen closely. Take my words to heart.
At daybreak summon the island’s lords to full assembly,
give your orders to all and call the gods to witness:
tell the suitors to scatter, each to his own place."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 311-316. Athena comes to the aid of the young, immature and inexperienced Telemachus. She gives him the confidence and strength needed to stand up for the family’s estate and to the suitors who abuse it.

"You must not cling to your boyhood any longer –
it’s time you were a man. Haven’t you heard
what glory Prince Orestes won throughout the world
when he killed that cunning, murderous Aegisthus,
who’d killed his famous father?
And you, my friend –
how tall and handsome I see you now – be brave, you too,
so men to come will sing your praises down the years."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 341-347. Athena is trying to inspire young Telemachus with the courage to go and search for news about his long-lost father. She wants the boy to become a man through action and by taking on responsibility. She is basically telling Telemachus to grow up and take charge, citing as an example Orestes, who gained glory by killing Aegisthus for having murdered Orestes’ father Agamemnon. Athena says that Telemachus too will win glory if he shows bravery.

"And you, if you have any shame in your own hearts,
you must leave my palace! See to your feasting elsewhere,
devour your own possessions, house to house by turns.
But if you decide the fare is better, richer here,
destroying one man’s goods and going scot-free,
all right then, carve away!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 155-160. Telemachus is fed up with the greedy suitors devouring all of Odysseus’ possessions. He stands up to them and asks them to leave. We see here his growing maturity and courage as he develops into a man. The prince is growing into manhood, but without his father, he knows that he doesn’t have the power to make the the suitors leave.

"But I’ll cry out to the everlasting gods in hopes
that Zeus will pay you back with a vengeance – all of you
destroyed in my house while I go scot-free myself!"
And to seal his prayer, farseeing Zeus sent down a sign.
He launched two eagles soaring high from a mountain ridge
and down they glided, borne on the wind’s draft a moment,
wing to wingtip, pinions straining taut till just
above the assembly’s throbbing hum they whirled,
suddenly, wings thrashing, wild onslaught of wings
and banking down at the crowd’s heads – a glaring, fatal sign –
talons slashing each other, tearing cheeks and throats
they swooped away on the right through homes and city."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 161-172. The theme of the gods intervening in the affairs of humans is illustrated here. Telemachus prays to Zeus to pay the suitors back for their behavior. Immediately the father of the gods answers his prayer with a "fatal" omen, sending down two fighting eagles tearing at each other over the heads of the crowd. This foreshadows that the suitors will pay the supreme penalty for their crimes. Telemachus demonstrates his courage in standing up to the suitors.

"Antinous, now how could I dine with you in peace
and take my pleasure? You ruffians carousing here!
Isn’t it quite enough that you, my mother’s suitors,
have ravaged it all, my very best, these many years,
while I was still a boy? But now that I’m full-grown
and can hear the truth from others, absorb it too
while I was still a boy? But now that I’m full-grown
and can hear the truth from others, absorb it too –
now, yes, that the anger seethes inside me…
I’ll stop at nothing to hurl destruction at your heads."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 344-351. An emboldened Telemachus, inspired by Athena, displays a man’s courage and determination in this rebuke to suitors’ leader Antinous. As they indulge themselves feasting on the palace food, the young prince lets the suitors know that they are no longer dealing with a timid boy but an angry man. He threatens destruction on their heads. Telemachus is attempting to assume the role of leader of his household.

"Telemachus, no more shyness, this is not the time!
We sailed the seas for this, for news of your father –
where does he lie buried? what fate did he meet?
So go right up to Nestor, breaker of horses.
We’ll make him yield the secrets of his heart.
Press him yourself to tell the whole truth:
he’ll never lie – the man is far too wise."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 16-22. Athena has been trying to give Telemachus a crash course in courage and maturity. She continues it here, as she deals with the young prince’s shyness about approaching King Nestor and speaking to him.

"what a heart that fearless Odysseus had inside him!
What a piece of work the hero dared and carried off
in the wooden horse where all our best encamped,
our champions armed with bloody death for Troy."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 303-306. Menelaus tells the story of the Trojan Horse, which enabled the Greeks to trick the defenders of Troy and take the city after a fruitless ten-year siege. He sings the praises of the brave and cunning Odysseus, credited with the idea of using the horse to deceive the Trojans.

"Hear me, dear ones! Zeus has given me torment –
me above all the others born and bred in my day.
My lionhearted husband, lost, long years ago,
who excelled the Argives all in every strength –
that great man whose fame resounds through Hellas
right to the depths of Argos!
But now my son,
my darling boy – the whirlwinds have ripped him
out of the halls without a trace! I never heard
he’d gone – not even from you, you hard, heartless…
not one of you even thought to rouse me from my bed,
though well you knew when he boarded that black ship.
Oh if only I had learned he was planning such a journey,
he would have stayed, by god, keen as he was to sail –
or left me dead right here within our palace."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 814-827. A distraught Penelope has learned that her son Telemachus has secretly set sail to Pylos and Sparta, while the suitors plan to kill him on his way home. She rails at Eurycleia for hiding her son’s departure from her. She makes clear that had she known, she would only have let Telemachus leave over her dead body. Angered by the deception, Penelope calls Eurycleia hard and heartless. Penelope speaks of her torment of first losing her husband and now her son, blaming Zeus for this. She recalls how Odysseus was honored with fame as a great warrior. In a metaphor she compares his bravery to that of a lion.

Only Alcinous’ daughter held fast, for Athena planted
courage within her heart, dissolved the trembling in her limbs,
and she firmly stood her ground and faced Odysseus, torn now –
Should he fling his arms around her knees, the young beauty,
plead for help, or stand back, plead with a winning word,
beg her to lead him to the town and lend him clothing?

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 148-158. Athena inspires Nausicaa with the courage to face the brine-caked and naked Odysseus. This is despite her maids fleeing at the terrifying sight of him.

"But here’s an unlucky wanderer strayed our way
and we must tend him well. Every stranger and beggar
comes from Zeus, and whatever scrap we give him
he’ll be glad to get. So, quick, my girls,
give our newfound friend some food and drink
and bathe the man in the river."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 226-231. Nausicaa asks her handmaids to give the wanderer Odysseus food and drink and to bathe him in the river. By doing this she is honoring the ancient Greek code of hospitality to strangers and also the god of hospitality Zeus. She shows courage by coming to the aid of a complete stranger, who happens to be male and naked. The princess may also be developing an attraction to Odysseus.

And now I ordered my shipmates all to cast lots –
who’d brave it out with me
to hoist our stake and grind it into his eye
when sleep had overcome him? Luck of the draw:
I got the very ones I would have picked myself,
four good men, and I in the lead made five.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 370-375. This shows why Odysseus is a good leader. He knows that anyone attacking Polyphemus is putting their own life at risk. But he puts the needs of the entire crew before the needs of the few, so is willing to risk sacrificing a few to save the majority. He also shows bravery in the face of danger. He includes himself in the sacrifice and draws lots with his men to fight the Cyclops. Whatever danger he asks his crew to face, he too is willing to face. Sleep is personified in this passage, which speaks about it overcoming the sailors.

There was a man, Elpenor, the youngest in our ranks,
none too brave in battle, none too sound in mind.
He’d strayed from his mates in Circe’s magic halls
and keen for the cool night air,
sodden with wine he’d bedded down on her roofs.
But roused by the shouts and tread of marching men,
he leapt up with a start at dawn but still so dazed
he forgot to climb back down again by the long ladder –
headfirst from the roof he plunged, his neck snapped
from the backbone, his soul flew down to Death.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 10, lines 608-617. This passage tells of the ignominious drunken death of his youngest comrade Elpenor, who is described as "none too brave in battle." He fell to his death from one of Circe’s roofs where he slept after imbibing too much wine. This is about as far as you can get from the heroic, honorable deaths in battle preferred by soldiers in Homer’s epic poetry.

"But even from there my courage,
my presence of mind and tactics saved us all,
and we will live to remember this someday,
I have no doubt. Up now, follow my orders,
all of us work as one! You men at the thwarts –
lay on with your oars and strike the heaving swells,
trusting that Zeus will pull us through these straits alive."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 229-235. Odysseus attempts to rally his terrified men as they approach the deadly whirlpool Charybdis. He motivates them to row harder away from the whirlpool. He hopes that Zeus will pull them safely through the straits between the crags, Charybdis beneath one crag and Scylla lurking in her cave on the other. Odysseus reminds his men that his courage and quick thinking saved them from the Cyclops.

I reached the crag of Scylla and dire Charybdis’ vortex
right when the dreadful whirlpool gulped the salt sea down.
But heaving myself aloft to clutch at the fig-tree’s height,
like a bat I clung to its trunk for dear life – not a chance
for a good firm foothold there, no clambering up it either,
the roots too far to reach, the boughs too high overhead,
huge swaying branches that overshadowed Charybdis.
But I held on, dead set…waiting for her
to vomit my mast and keel back up again.
Oh how I ached for both! and back they came.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 464-473. This passage describes how Odysseus escapes the deadly whirlpool Charybdis with timbers from his wrecked raft. He displays great courage as he clings for dear life to the trunk of a fig tree to stop himself being swallowed up by Charybdis. A simile describes him holding on "like a bat," until the whirlpool vomits his mast and keel back up again. He scrambles aboard them, so managing to turn defeat into victory.

"all my life I’ve heard of your great fame –
a brave man in war and a deep mind in counsel –
but what you say dumbfounds me, staggers imagination!
How on earth could two men fight so many and so strong.
These suitors are not just ten or twenty, they’re far more."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 16, lines 272-276. Telemachus acknowledges Odysseus’ record of bravery in war, but he is concerned at his father’s plan to fight the suitors. There are only two of them, he says, while he numbers the suitors’ strength at one hundred and seventeen.

"You, Antinous! Violent, vicious, scheming –
you, they say, are the best man your age in Ithaca,
best for eloquence, counsel. You’re nothing of the sort!
Madman, why do you weave destruction for Telemachus?
…Stop, I tell you,
stop all this, and make the rest stop too."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 16, lines 463-466, 479-480. A furious Penelope has been warned by the herald Medon that the suitors plan to kill her son Telemachus. She is particularly angry at Antinous, because Odysseus saved his father’s life when a mob was out to destroy him. She demands that Antinous stop the murder plot and make the rest of the conspirators stop as well. She brands him a vicious and violent madman. Penelope shows a lot of bravery in the way she confronts Antinous over his scheming.

"Don’t you know how your father fled here once?
A fugitive, terrified of the people, up in arms
against him because he’d joined some Taphian pirates
out to attack Thesprotians, sworn allies of ours.
The mobs were set to destroy him, rip his life out,
devour his vast wealth to their heart’s content,
but Odysseus held them back, he kept their fury down.
And this is the man whose house you waste, scot-free,
whose wife you court, whose son you mean to kill –
you make my life an agony! Stop, I tell you,
stop all this, and make the rest stop too!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 16, lines 470-480. An angry Penelope reminds Antinous how Odysseus helped Antinous’ father. She tells him that the mobs were set to rip his father’s life out and devour his wealth, but Odysseus held them back and saved his life. Yet Antinous was now laying waste to Odysseus’ house, courting his wife and planning to kill his son. Penelope demands that Antinous halt the plot to murder Telemachus. She demonstrates great courage by refusing to give into the suitors, standing up to the violent Antinous and shaming him for his leading role in the murder scheme. This passage highlights Penelope’s fierce loyalty to her missing husband and to her son. At the same time it shows the disloyalty of the treacherous Antinous towards a family that did so much to help his family.

"How shameful! That’s the bed
of a brave man of war they’d like to crawl inside,
those spineless, craven cowards!
Weak as the doe that beds down her fawns
in a mighty lion’s den – her newborn sucklings –
then trails off to the mountain spurs and grassy bends
to graze her fill, but back the lion comes to his own lair
and the master deals both fawns a ghastly bloody death,
just what Odysseus will deal that mob – ghastly death."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 132-140. Telemachus repeats to Penelope what Menelaus said to him about the suitors attempting to crawl inside the marriage bed of a brave warrior. Menelaus makes a prediction that Odysseus will punish the suitors with "ghastly death," foreshadowing their bloody end at the hands of Odysseus. In an epic simile, Penelope’s suitors are compared to fawns and Odysseus to a powerful lion into whose lair they have stumbled.

The man who’d borne long years abroad replied,
"Well I know. Remember? There’s sense in this old head.
You go in, you first, while I stay here behind.
Stones and blows and I are hardly strangers.
My heart is steeled by now,
I’ve had my share of pain in the waves and wars.
Add this to the total. Bring the trial on.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 306-312. Odysseus the beggar says this to Eumaeus as they draw close to the palace. The swineherd, unaware that he is talking to his lost master Odysseus, has warned him to take care and not linger long outside the palace in case someone hits him. But Odysseus replies that he has taken much blows and beatings in his time at sea and in war and has the courage to stand up to more. Bring it on, he says.

But now Prince Telemachus dressed them down:
"Fools, you’re out of your minds! No hiding it,
food and wine have gone to your heads. Some god
has got your blood up. Come, now you’ve eaten well
go home to bed – when the spirit moves, that is.
I, for one, I’ll drive no guest away."
So he declared. And they all bit their lips,
amazed the prince could speak with so much daring.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 457-464. The young Prince Telemachus is fed up with all the greedy suitors, who have indulged their fill of palace food and drink. He asserts his authority, scolds his mother’s suitors, and stands up for the beggar (his father in disguise). This is after the suitors abuse and mock the beggar, with one of the leading ones Eurymachus throwing a stool at him. Telemachus orders the suitors to leave and go home to bed, declaring that he will not drive the beggar away. The passage shows that Odysseus’ young son has grown into a mature and brave man, is not afraid of the suitors anymore, and follows the custom of offering hospitality to visitors. It is one of the first times we see him trying to get rid of the suitors, who after Telemachus’ scolding decide to leave the beggar Odysseus be and quit the house.
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