Verse
Odyssey
Book 21, Line 404 by Samuel Butler (English)
But Odysseus, when he had taken it up and examined it all over, strung it as easily as a skilled bard strings a new peg of his lyre and makes the twisted gut fast at both ends. Then he took it in his right hand to prove the string, and it sang sweetly under his touch like the twittering of a swallow. The suitors were dismayed [ akhos ], and turned color as they heard it; at that moment, moreover, Zeus thundered loudly as a sign [ sêma ], and the heart of Odysseus rejoiced as he heard the omen that the son of scheming Kronos had sent him.
OdysseyBook 21, Line 404Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 21
HomerProseID odyssey-odyssey-butler-en-prose-21-404