"Just as the eagle swooped down from the crags
where it was born and bred, just as it snatched
that goose fattened up for the kill inside the house,
just so, after many trials and roving long and hard,
Odysseus will descend on his house and take revenge."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 15, lines 194-198. Helen interprets a bird omen. Odysseus’ son and Pisistratus are about to head home from Sparta when an eagle flies by on the right, clutching a big white goose in its talons. Helen interprets this as a sign from the gods that Odysseus will take revenge on the suitors. In an epic simile, Odysseus is compared to an eagle and the suitors a goose.