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Odysseus Quotes

Browse 59 quotes about Odysseus.

Odysseus Quotes

“There's always a siren, singing you to shipwreck. Some of us may be more susceptible than others are, but there's always a siren. It may be with us all our lives, or it may be many years or decades before we find it or it finds us. But when it does find us, if we're lucky we're Odysseus tied up to the ship's mast, hearing the song with perfect clarity, but ferried to safety by a crew whose ears have been plugged with beeswax. If we're not at all lucky, we're another sort of sailor stepping off the deck to drown in the sea.”

SongMadnessSafetyLuckInsanityHauntingDrowningSailorShipwreckShipDrownOdysseusSiren
Book:The Drowning Girl
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“The image of a man deliberately constraining his freedom in order to achieve a greater goal resonates powerfully through the ages. We may not face singing sirens on a remote isle, but every person harbors their own sirens—alluring distractions and destructive temptations. Like Odysseus, we are strapped to a journey, and along the way we will inevitably hear those calls.”

PsychologyStrategyPersonal GrowthGoalsMythologyTemptationSelf DisciplineWillpowerOdysseusPrecommitment
Author:Kevin L. Michel
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“You know, Mac,”Cadmus said still looking out the window. “We may have to work on the way we tell our story …apparently it’s not amusing enough.” “I’ll try to include a joke between ‘he bled to death’and ‘the city burned’.”Machaon responded tersely.”

WarFunnyGreekStorySarcasmGreek MythologyJokeGodsAmusingDark HumorGreek GodsSarcastic HumorOdysseusTrojansTrojan HorseTrojan WarGreeksGreek Myths
Book:Chasing Odysseus
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“And so, Athene, the prayer I offer is this: thank you for bringing my husband home, if that is what you have done. If the man who sleeps upstairs in the bed he once carved from an old olive tree is an impostor, I suppose I will find out soon enough. He knows the old stories of our marriage, of that I am certain. And Telemachus is devoted to him, which is fortunate. So perhaps it does not matter if he is the man who left, or a changed man, or even another man altogether. He fits in the space that Odysseus left." - Your devoted Penelope”

LoveAcceptanceDevotionResignationAthenaOdysseus
Book:A Thousand Ships
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“Odysseus' favourite pose had been to pretend that he was a man like other men, but there were none like him, and now that he was dead, there were none at all. All heroes are fools, he liked to say. What he meant was, all heroes but me. So who could correct him when he erred? He had stood on the beach looking at Telegonus and believing him a pirate. He had stood in his hall and accused Telemachus of conspiracy. Two children he had had, and he had not seen either clearly. But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.”

CirceOdysseusTelemachusTelegonus
Book:Circe
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“I don't understand," Olivia said. "How did Penny sewing and unsewing make for the Trojan War?" "Penelope was Odysseus's wife," Philippa explained. "He left her, and she sat at her loom, sewing all day, and unraveling all her work at night. For years." "Why on earth would someone do that?" Olivia wrinkled her nose, selecting a sweet from a nearby tray. "Years? Really?" "She was waiting for him to come home," Penelope said, meeting Michael's gaze. There was something meaningful there, and he thought she might be speaking of more than the Greek myth. Did she wait for him at night? She'd told him not to touch her... she'd pushed him away... but tonight, if he went to her, would she accept him? Would she follow the path of her namesake? "I hope you have more exciting things to do when you are waiting for Michael to come home, Penny," Olivia teased. Penelope smiled, but there was something in her gaze that he did not like, something akin to sadness. He blamed himself for it. Before him, she was happier. Before him, she smiled and laughed and played games with her sisters without reminder of her unfortunate fate. He stood to meet her as she approached the settee. "I would never leave my Penelope for years." He said, "I would be too afraid that someone would snatch her away." His mother-in-law sighed audibly from across the room as his new sisters laughed. He lifted one of Penelope's hands in his and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. "Penelope and Odysseus were never my favored mythic couple, anyway. I was always more partial to Persephone and Hades." Penelope smiled at him, and the room was suddenly much much warmer. "You think they were a happier couple?" she asked, wry. He met her little smile, enjoying himself as he lowered his voice. "I think six months of feast is better than twenty years of famine." She blushed, and he resisted the urge to kiss her there, in the drawing room, hang propriety and ladies' delicate sensibilities.”

Greek MythologyHadesPersephoneOdysseusPippa MarburyPenelope And MichaelPenelopePhilippa Marbury
Book:A Rogue by Any Other Name
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“As you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that your journey be a long one, filled with adventure, filled with discovery. Laestrygonians and Cyclopes, the angry Poseidon--do not fear them: you'll never find such things on your way unless your sight is set high, unless a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. The Laestrygonians and Cyclopes, the savage Poseidon--you won't meet them so long as you do not admit them to your soul, as long as your soul does not set them before you. Pray that your road is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when with what pleasure, with what joy, you enter harbors never seen before. May you stop at Phoenician stations of trade to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, and voluptuous perfumes of every kind-- buy as many voluptuous perfumes as you can. And may you go to many Egyptian cities to learn and learn from those who know. Always keep Ithaca in your mind. You are destined to arrive there. But don't hurry your journey at all. Far better if it takes many years, and if you are old when you anchor at the island, rich with all you have gained on the way, not expecting that Ithaca will give you wealth. Ithaca has given you a beautiful journey. Without her you would never have set out. She has no more left to give you. And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not mocked you. As wise as you have become, so filled with experience, you will have understood what these Ithacas signify.”

TragedyMythGreekOdysseyOdysseusIthacaCavafy
Book:Classical Myth
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“He did not appear to be a very tall man; what I could see of legs seemed stumpy, though heavily muscled. His chest was broad and deep. Later I learned that he swam in the sea almost every morning. His thick strong arms were circled with leather wristbands and a bronze armlet above his left elbow that gleamed with polished onyx and lapis lazuli... Puckered white scars from old wounds stood out against the dark skin of his arms, parting the black hairs like roads through a forest... Odysseos wore a sleeveless tunic, his legs and feet bare, but he had thrown a lamb's fleece across his wide shoulders. His face was thickly bearded with dark curly hair that showed a trace of grey. His heavy mop of ringlets came down to his shoulders and across his forehead almost down to his black eyebrows. Those eyes were as grey as the sea outside on this rainy afternoon, probing, searching, judging.”

OdysseusThe Trojan War
Author:Ben Bova
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“The Cyclops was about to roll the stone back into place, when from somewhere outside Annabeth shouted, "Hello, ugly!" Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?" "Nobody!" Annabeth yelled. That got exactl;y the reaction she'd been hoping for. The monster's face turned red with rage. "Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!" "You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody." I hoped to the gods she was already moving when she said that, because Polyphemus bellowed furiously, grabbed the nearest boulder (which happened to be his front door) and threw it toward the sound of Annabeth's voice. I heard the rock smash into a thousand fragments. To a terrible moment, there was silence. Then Annabeth shouted, "You haven't learned to throw any better, either!" Polyphemus howled. "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!" "You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf," she taunted. "Come find me!" Polyphemus barreled down the hill toward her voice. Now, the "Nobody" thing would have confused anybody, but Annabeth had explained to me that it was the name Odysseus had used to trick Polyphemus centuries ago, right before he poked the Cyclops's eye out with a large hot stick. Annabeth had figured Polyphemus would still have a grudge about that name, and she was right. In his frenzy to find his old enemy, he forgot about resealing the cave entrance. Apparently, he did even stop to consider that Annabeth's voice was female, whereas the first Nobody had been male. On the other hand, he'd wanted to marry Grover, so he couldn't have been all that bright about the whole male/female thing. I just hoped Annabeth could stay alive and keep distracting him long enough for me to find Grover and Clarisse.”

AnnabethGroverNobodyOdysseusPercyPolyphemusClarisseInvisble
Book:The Sea of Monsters
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“- Fanciulla, non so se sei una dea o una mortale, se sei una dea certo sei Artemide con le tue ancelle. Non ho mai visto niente di così bello come te, io ho provato lo stesso stupore ammirato una sola volta, a Delo quando ho visto un giovane fusto di palma che svettava, flessuoso, diritto verso il cielo. E vedo te come se tu fossi quella palma e provo lo stesso sentimento di ammirazione stupita. Io ho visto tutto questo, ho visto la scena, il torrente, le fanciulle che lavavano la biancheria, ho visto Nausicaa. In seguito, per una gran parte della mia vita mi è successo di guardare così, quando le incontravo, le fanciulle che non conoscevo, le vedevo belle, leggiadre e giovani, mi capitava di guardarle con gli occhi di Ulisse, come se fossero una giovane palma che si leva flessuosa, diritta verso il cielo.”

EpicOdysseusHomerUlissesNausicaaOmeroUlisse
Author:Jean Pierre Vernant
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“But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another...We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows?...Perhaps one day even I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you.' 'I doubt it.' Odysseus shrugs. 'We cannot say. We are men only, a brief flare of the torch. Those to come may raise us or lower us as they please. Patroclus may be such as will rise in the future.' 'He is not.”

DeathTimeMemoryOdysseusThe Song Of AchillesPyrrhus
Book:The Song of Achilles
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“Wouldn’t you like to see the dead, just as the most special children do? Wouldn’t you like to converse with the departed and learn their secrets? Odysseus managed it. So can all of us. We can all get on the black ship and sail across Oceanus to Cimmeria, where we will find the land of dreams and its astounding neighbor, the land of the dead. We are a divine species. Isn’t it about time we became gods? What are we waiting for?”

ChildrenDreamsParanormalGodsOdysseus
Book:Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers
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“What's amazing to me is how many of the issues facing women in the ancient world still linger today. Take Odysseus' wife, Penelope, a brilliant, resourceful woman who ends up in a terrible situation: in her husband's absence, she is being held hostage in her own home by men who claim to be courting her. She tries to make them leave, but because she's a woman they refuse, blaming their bad behavior on her desirability.”

MenWorldTryingStillsEndsHomeTodaySituationIssuesWifeTerribleHusbandBehaviorClaimsBlameAncientRefuseBrilliantAbsenceHostageResourcefulBad BehaviorOdysseusAncient WorldDesirability
Author:Madeline Miller
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“I find that readers are very interested in how things are translated. I just turned in the first part of this father-son Odyssey, and there is a part when I digress and explain that the name Odysseus is related to the word for pain. Like "-odyne" in the word "anodyne," pain. It's the same, "-odyne" as in Odysseus. He's the man who both suffers endlessly, in trying to get home, but also inflicts a lot of suffering on everyone he visits.”

MenTryingHomePainSufferingHe ManOdysseyOdysseus
Author:Daniel Mendelsohn
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“For they imagined as they wished--that it was a wild shot,/ an unintended killing--fools, not to comprehend/ they were already in the grip of death./ But glaring under his brows Odysseus answered: 'You yellow dogs, you thought I'd never make it/ home from the land of Troy. You took my house to plunder,/ twisted my maids to serve your beds. You dared/ bid for my wife while I was still alive./ Contempt was all you had for the gods who rule wide heaven,/ contempt for what men say of you hereafter./ Your last hour has come. You die in blood.”

MenStillsHomeLastsDiesHouseHeavenHoursAliveWifeBloodLandDogFoolBedShotsKillingWideMy WifeContemptYellowTwistedHereafterBrowsMaidsPlunderOdysseus
Book:The odyssey
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“Though men in the mass forget the origins of their need, they still bring wolfhounds into city apartments, where dog and man both sit brooding in wistful discomfort. The magic that gleams an instant between Argos and Odysseus is both the recognition of diversity and the need for affection across the illusions of form. It is nature's cry to homeless, far-wandering, insatiable man: "Do not forget your brethren, nor the green wood from which you sprang. To do so is to invite disaster.”

MenNeedsStillsFormForgetCitiesMagicDogCryDiversityMassIllusionGreenAffectionWoodsDisasterWanderRecognitionInstantInvitesApartmentHomelessDiscomfortBrethrenInsatiableGleamBroodingOdysseus
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“But you, Achilles,/ There is 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.’ I reassured the ghost, but he broke out protesting,/ ‘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.”

MenWorldHas BeensEarthWinningPoorLordAliveDyingShiningSlaveGhostBrokeGrievingFarmersOne TimeDirtHonoredAnother ManAchillesBreathlessOdysseyTenantsOdysseus
Book:Odyssey, Homer
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“Odysseus inclines his head. "True. But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another." He spread his broad hands. "We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows?" He smiles. "Perhaps one day even I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you.”

KnowsMenHandsDiesMemoriesGenerationsStrangeOne DayFameGloryGainsSpreadMythologyBroadsHolocaustFadesStrange ThingsInclineOdysseus
Book:The Song of Achilles
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