The Odyssey Glory and Honor Quotes

Then he escorted her to a high, elaborate chair of honor,
over it draped a cloth, and here he placed his guest
with a stool to rest her feet.
…A maid brought water soon in a graceful golden pitcher
and over a silver basin tipped it out
so they might rinse their hands,
then pulled a gleaming table to their side.
A staid housekeeper brought on bread to serve them,
appetizers aplenty too, lavish with her bounty.
A carver lifted platters of meat toward them,
meats of every sort, and set beside them golden cups
and time and again a page came round and poured them wine.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 152-154, 160-168. The Greek value of hospitality is emphasized when Athena, disguised as Mentes, visits Telemachus. He invites her to share in the household’s "lavish" banquet. She is given pride of place at the table, being seated on one of the best chairs and provided with a footstool.

"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.

At once she prayed intensely to Poseidon:
"Hear me, Sea-lord, you who embrace the earth –
don’t deny our wishes, bring our prayers to pass!
First, then, to Nestor and all his sons grant glory.
Then to all these Pylians, for their splendid rites
grant a reward that warms their gracious hearts.
And last, Poseidon, grant Telemachus and myself
safe passage home, the mission accomplished
that sped us here in our rapid black ship."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 61-69. Prompted by Nestor’s son Pisistratus, Athena prays to Poseidon to honor Nestor and his sons. It is ironic that Athena prays to Poseidon. For she is working against the god who is punishing Odysseus, by giving advice to Odysseus’ son Telemachus.

The women shrilled their cry,
…Then, hoisting up
the victim’s head from the trampled earth, they held her fast
as the captain of men Pisistratus slashed her throat.
Dark blood gushed forth, life ebbed from her limbs.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 506, 508-511. This describes the slaughtering and sacrifice of the heifer in honor of Athena by King Nestor and his people. The animal’s horns have been covered in gold by a goldsmith. The slaughter is carried out by Nestor’s son Pisistratus.

"But about your own destiny, Menelaus,
dear to Zeus, it’s not for you to die
and meet your fate in the stallion-land of Argos,
no, the deathless ones will sweep you off to the world’s end,
the Elysian Fields, where gold-haired Rhadamanthys waits
where life glides on in immortal ease for mortal man;
no snow, no winter onslaught, never a downpour there,
but night and day the Ocean River sends up breezes,
singing winds of the West refreshing all mankind.
All this because you are Helen’s husband now
the gods count you the son-in-law of Zeus."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 631-641. Proteus, the prophetic shape shifting sea god, tells Menelaus that he will not die and end up a shade in Hades. Instead he is fated to live eternity in the heavenly Eylsian Fields – because he is dear to Zeus and is husband of Zeus’ daughter Helen. In Greek mythology the Elysian Fields are the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and virtuous.

"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.

"Three, four times blessed, my friends-in-arms
who died on the plains of Troy those years ago,
serving the sons of Atreus to the end. Would to god
I’d died there too and met my fate that day the Trojans,
swarms of them, hurled at me with bronze spears,
fighting over the corpse of proud Achilles!
A hero’s funeral then, my glory spread by comrades –
now what a wretched death I’m doomed to die!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 338-345. Odysseus believes that he is going to die at sea, thanks to the storm sent by Poseidon. But the hero of the Trojan war wishes that he had met his end more gloriously with his dead comrades on the battlefields of Troy.

"This is no way, Alcinous. How indecent, look,
our guest on the ground, in the ashes by the fire!
Your people are holding back, waiting for your signal.
Come, raise him up and seat the stranger now,
in a silver-studded chair,
and tell the heralds to mix more wine for all
so we can pour out cups to Zeus who loves the lightning."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 189-195. An elder of the Phaeacians, Echeneus, calls on Alcinous to treat their guest Odysseus well. He asks that he be seated on one of their best chairs and for more wine to be poured out to honor the god of hospitality Zeus.

"Come, my people!
Haul a black ship down to the bright sea,
rigged for her maiden voyage –
enlist a crew of fifty-two young sailors,
the best in town, who’ve proved their strength before.
Let all hands lash their oars to the thwarts then disembark,
come to my house and fall in for a banquet, quickly.
I’ll lay on a princely feast for all."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 38-45. Even though this at point Alcinous doesn’t know who his guest Odysseus is, he asks his people to prepare a ship with a crew of fifty-two sailors for him. He then summons everyone back to his palace for a princely banquet in honor of Odysseus.

and when they’d put aside desire for food and drink,
the Muse inspired the bard
to sing the famous deeds of fighting heroes –
the song whose fame had reached the skies those days:
The Strife Between Odysseus and Achilles, Peleus’ Son…
how once at the gods’ lavish feast the captains clashed
in a savage war of words, while Agamemnon, lord of armies,
rejoiced at heart that Achaea’s bravest men were battling so.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 85-92. The Muse goddess inspires Demodocus to sing a song about the glorious deeds of battle heroes during the Phaeacian welcome for Odysseus. But the song tells of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles, with Agamemnon happy to see the best of the Achaeans quarreling. This will upset Odysseus.

"I am Odysseus, son of Laertes, known to the world
for every kind of craft – my fame has reached the skies.
Sunny Ithaca is my home. Atop her stands our seamark,
Mount Neriton’s leafy ridges shimmering in the wind.
Around her a ring of islands circle side-by-side,
Dulichion, Same, wooded Zacynthus too, but mine
lies low and away, the farthest out to sea,
rearing into the western dusk
while the others face the east and breaking day.
Mine is a rugged land but good for raising sons –
and I myself, I know no sweeter sight on earth
than a man’s own native country."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 21-32. Odysseus, who is in disguise, reveals his true identity to King Alcinous and the Phaeacians. While his guile and fame are known throughout the world, Odysseus is more interested in reaching home in Ithaca than achieving further fame and glory. This passage provides us with an insight into who Odysseus really is, and how after all his heroic adventures he now believes that there is simply no place like home. The heroes of The Iiad and The Odyssey lived by the ancient warrior code of kleos, meaning renown or glory, often attained in battle. But home now means more to Odysseus.

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 first
the ghost of Elpenor, my companion, came toward me.
He’d not been buried under the wide ways of earth,
not yet, we’d left his body in Circe’s house,
unwept, unburied – this other labor pressed us.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 56-60. The first ghost to approach Odysseus in the underworld is that of Elpenor, the crew member who died before Odysseus departed Circe’s island. We learn that Elpenor was not accorded the honor of a proper buriel, something very important in the eyes of both mortals and gods.

"But once you have killed those suitors in your halls –
by stealth or in open fight with slashing bronze –
go forth once more, you must…
carry your well-planed oar until you come
to a race of people who know nothing of the sea,
whose food is never seasoned with salt, strangers all
to ships with their crimson prows and long slim oars,
wings that make ships fly. And here is your sign –
unmistakable, clear, so clear you cannot miss it:
When another traveler falls in with you and calls
that weight across your shoulder a fan to winnow grain,
then plant your bladed, balanced oar in the earth
and sacrifice fine beasts to the lord god of the sea,
Poseidon – a ram, a bull and a ramping wild boar –
then journey home and render noble offerings up
to the deathless gods who rule the vaulting skies,
to all the gods in order.
And at last your own death will steal upon you…
a gentle, painless death, far from the sea it comes
to take you down, borne down with the years in ripe old age
with all your people there in blessed peace around you.
All that I have told you will come true."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 136-157. Odysseus that he has one last journey to make before he dies a gentle death in his old age, Tiresias prophesies. After arriving home and killing the suitors, Odysseus must journey to a race of people who don’t know the sea, plant his oar in the earth, and sacrifice a ram, bull and wild boar to Poseidon. Then he must return home and honor all the gods with offerings. This would be seen as atonement by Odysseus for having blinded the sea god’s son. This passage foreshadows the deaths of the suitors.

"But you, Achilles,
there’s not a man in the world more blest than you –
there never has been, never will be one.
Time was, when you were alive, we Argives
honored you as a god, and now down here, I see,
you lord it over the dead in all your power.
So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 547-553. Odysseus tries to provide comfort to the great warrior and hero of the Trojan war, Achilles. Odysseus envies the glory that Achilles won on the battlefield, telling him in a simile that his countrymen honored him like a god.

"No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man –
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive –
than rule down here over all the breathless dead."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 555-558. Here we have some of the most famous words in The Odyssey, spoken by the ghost of a regretful and disconsolate Achilles, who died in the Trojan War. Achilles rejects Odysseus’ view that a glorious death like his at Troy is to be envied, instead he is envious of Odysseus for being alive. He would rather be a poor farmer barely scraping a living, than lording it over the ghosts in the House of Death, he asserts. A poor life is better than a glorious death, according to the hero, who now regrets that he squandered life in pursuit of glory and an early death. Achilles’ words overturn on its head the ancient Greek concept of kleos, meaning eternal fame, often achieved by dying violent and dramatic deaths on the field of battle.

"Come closer, famous Odysseus – Achaea’s pride and glory –
moor your ship on our coast so you can hear our song!
Never has any sailor passed our shores in his black craft
until he has heard the honeyed voices pouring from our lips,
and once he hears to his heart’s content sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so –
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 200-207. As Odysseus’ ship races past the Sirens, Homer describes how the hypnotic but deadly women of the sea burst into their irresistible song. In their bid to tempt Odysseus, the Sirens feed into his ego and pride, referring to his fame and how he is the pride and glory of his people. A metaphor compares their voices to the pouring of sweet honey. The Sirens ask him to moor his ship on their coast, promising that he will sail away a wiser man. This is an example of irony, since the readers knows that the Sirens mean the opposite of what they say, they use their hypnotic feminine voices to lure sailors to their deaths on their rocky shores.

"I will lose all my honor now
among the immortals, now there are mortal men
who show me no respect – Phaeacians, too,
born of my own loins! I said myself
that Odysseus would suffer long and hard
before he made it home, but I never dreamed
of blocking his return, not absolutely at least,
once you had pledged your word and bowed your head.
But now they’ve swept him across the sea in their swift ship,
they’ve set him down in Ithaca, sound asleep, and loaded the man
with boundless gifts – bronze and hoards of gold and robes –
aye, more plunder than he could ever have won from Troy."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 13, lines 145-150. Poseidon complains to Zeus that the Phaeacians have swept Odysseus across the sea to Ithaca in their ship and lavished him with gifts. The sea god is worried that he will lose honor and respect with the other gods. Odysseus was meant to suffer long and hard before returning home for his crime of blinding Poseidon’s son, he believes.

The swineherd, standing up
to share the meat – his sense of fairness perfect –
carved it all out into seven equal portions.
One he set aside, lifting up a prayer
to the forest nymphs and Hermes, Maia’s son,
and the rest he handed on to each man in turn.
But to Odysseus he presented the boar’s long loin
and the cut of honor cheered his master’s heart.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 14, lines 490-497. Eumaeus honors his guest as if he were a king, which of course Odysseus is. He gives Odysseus the choicest cut of meat, the loin from the boar.

"But there’s no way to hide the belly’s hungers –
what a curse, what mischief it brews in all our lives!
Just for hunger we rig and ride our long benched ships
on the barren salt sea, speeding death to enemies."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 17, lines 313-316. There are literal and figurative meanings in what Odysseus says here. Disguised as a beggar he speaks of the curse of hunger, which sends men to war to plunder in search of food. But the "belly’s hungers" and their "curse" can also be seen as a metaphor for human desires and the sufferings they bring. An example is the Greeks’ pursuit of glory in the Trojan War, where many of Odysseus’ comrades died in a conflict over one woman. That woman is Helen of Troy, a sexual icon whose "terrible beauty" is compared to that of a goddess in Homer’s The Iliad, Book 3. In the lines preceeding this passage from The Odyssey, Odysseus talks of the pain he has suffered at sea and in war: "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."

"no man on the face of the earth could find fault with you.
Your fame, believe me, has reached the vaulting skies.
Fame like a flawless king’s who dreads the gods,
who governs a kingdom vast, proud and strong –
who upholds justice, true, and the black earth
bears wheat and barley, trees bow down with fruit
and the sheep drop lambs and never fail and the sea
teems with fish – thanks to his decent, upright rule,
and under his sovereign sway the people flourish."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 117-125. Odysseus, still in disguise as a beggar, praises his wife Penelope for the fame she has achieved as the Queen of Ithaca. Using an extended simile, he compares her to a just and flawless king who rules over a flourishing country that is thriving because of his good government.

"No, no, stranger," wise Penelope demurred,
"whatever form and feature I had, what praise I’d won,
the deathless gods destroyed that day the Achaeans
sailed away to Troy, my husband in their ships,
Odysseus – if he could return to tend my life
the renown I had would only grow in glory.
Now my life is torment."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 137-143. Penelope responds to Odysseus-the-beggar’s praise in which he compares her to a flawless king. She says that whatever renown she had was destroyed the day her husband sailed for Troy. But if he could return, that fame would grow in glory. Penelope remains loyal to Odysseus and struggles without him, saying that her life is torment.

"If a man is cruel by nature, cruel in action,
the mortal world will call down curses on his head
while he is alive, and all will mock his memory after death.
But then if a man is kind by nature, kind in action,
his guests will carry his fame across the earth
and people all will praise him from the heart."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 378-383. Penelope makes a speech about the ancient Greek concepts of xenia (hospitality to strangers) and kleos (fame or glory). It comes after she takes Odysseus-the-beggar into her home and her words are directed at anyone who "offends our guest beyond endurance." A cruel person will be cursed while alive and mocked when dead, she warns. But a kind person’s guests will spread his fame spread across the world, she says.

"Shame?" alert Penelope protested –
"How can you hope for any public fame at all?
You who disgrace, devour a great man’s house and home!
Why hang your heads in shame over next to nothing?
Our friend here is a strapping, well-built man
and claims to be the son of a noble father.
Come, hand him the bow now, let’s just see…
I tell you this – and I’ll make good my word –
if he strings the bow and Apollo grants him glory,
I’ll dress him in shirt and cloak, in handsome clothes,
I’ll give him a good sharp lance to fight off men and dogs,
give him a two-edged sword and sandals for his feet
and send him off, wherever his heart desires."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 21, lines 369-381. Penelope dismisses the suitors’ objections to the beggar (Odysseus in disguise) taking part in the game to use Odysseus’ bow. She rounds on Eurymachus for his suggestion that if the beggar succeeds where they cannot, they will hang their heads in shame. She bluntly tells them they cannot hope for any public fame after the way they greedily devoured Odysseus’ house and home. She promises to dress the beggar in find clothes and give him a lance and sword if he wins the bow contest. Penelope shows great courage in standing up to the suitors here.
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