Verse

Odyssey

Book 22, Line 44 by Samuel Butler (English)

"If you are Odysseus," said he, "then what you have said is just. We have done much wrong on your lands and in your house. But Antinoos, who was the head and front of the offending [ aitios ], lies low already. It was all his doing. It was not that he wanted to marry Penelope; he did not so much care about that; what he wanted was something quite different, and Zeus has not granted it to him; he wanted to kill your son and to be chief man in Ithaca . Now, therefore, that he has met the death which was his due, spare the lives of your people. We will make everything good among ourselves in this district [ dêmos ], and pay you in full for all that we have eaten and drunk. Each one of us shall pay you a fine worth twenty oxen, and we will keep on giving you gold and bronze till your heart is softened. Until we have done this no one can complain of your being enraged against us."

OdysseyBook 22, Line 44Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 22

HomerProseID odyssey-odyssey-butler-en-prose-22-44

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Samuel Butler's public-domain English prose Odyssey via Perseus canonical TEI; prose segments are assigned to their source line span.