All 50 Uses of
Zeus
in
The Odyssey
- Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will—sing for our time too.†p. 77.8Zeus = Greek mythology: the most supreme of the gods
- But the other gods, at home in Olympian Zeus's halls,
met for full assembly there, and among them now
the father of men and gods was first to speak,
sorely troubled, remembering handsome Aegisthus,
the man Agamemnon's son, renowned Orestes, killed.†p. 78.5
- Recalling Aegisthus, Zeus harangued the immortal powers:
"Ah how shameless—the way these mortals blame the gods.†p. 78.6
- Odysseus longs to die ….
Olympian Zeus,
have you no care for him in your lofty heart?
Did he never win your favor with sacrifices
burned beside the ships on the broad plain of Troy?p. 79.6 *
- Why, Zeus, why so dead set against Odysseus?†
p. 79.7
- "My child," Zeus who marshals the thunderheads replied,
"what nonsense you let slip through your teeth.†p. 79.7
- Someone may tell you something
or you may catch a rumor straight from Zeus,
rumor that carries news to men like nothing else.†p. 86.8
- Bards are not to blame-
Zeus is to blame.†p. 89.0
- But I'll cry out to the everlasting gods in hopes
that Zeus will pay you back with a vengeance—all of you
destroyed in my house while I go scot-free myself!†p. 90.0
- I pray that Zeus will never make you king of Ithaca,
though your father's crown is no doubt yours by birth.†p. 90.3
- But cool-headed Telemachus countered firmly:
"Antinous, even though my words may offend you,
I'd be happy to take the crown if Zeus presents it.†p. 90.4
- May Zeus speed him on to a happy end,
whatever his heart desires!†p. 94.5
- I beg you by Olympian Zeus, by Themis too,
who sets assemblies free and calls us into session—
stop, my friends!†p. 95.6
- But I'll cry out to the everlasting gods in hopes
that Zeus will pay you back with a vengeance—all of you
destroyed in my house while I go scot-free myself!†p. 98.0
- And to seal his prayer, farseeing Zeus sent down a sign.†
p. 98.1
- Someone may tell me something
or I may catch a rumor straight from Zeus,
rumor that carries news to men like nothing else.†p. 100.3
- And so Athena, daughter of Zeus, assured him.†
p. 102.8
- All running gear secure in the swift black craft,
they set up bowls and brimmed them high with wine
and poured libations out to the everlasting gods
who never die—to Athena first of all,
the daughter of Zeus with flashing sea-gray eyes—
and the ship went plunging all night long and through the dawn.†p. 106.9
- He gave them a share of innards, poured some wine
in a golden cup and, lifting it warmly toward Athena,
daughter of Zeus whose shield is storm and thunder,
greeted the goddess now with an invitation:
"Say a prayer to lord Poseidon, stranger,
his is the feast you've found on your arrival.†p. 108.9
- Your patience would fray, you'd soon head for home ...
Nine years we wove a web of disaster for those Trojans,
pressing them hard with every tactic known to man,
and only after we slaved did Zeus award us victory.†p. 111.3
- But then, once we'd sacked King Priam's craggy city,
Zeus contrived in his heart a fatal homeward run
for all the Achaeans who were fools, at least,
dishonest too, so many met a disastrous end,
thanks to the lethal rage
of the mighty Father's daughter.†p. 111.7
- That night we barely slept,
seething with hard feelings against our own comrades,
for Zeus Was brooding over us, poised to seal our doom ...
At dawn, half of us hauled our vessels down to sea,
we stowed our plunder, our sashed and lovely women.†p. 112.3
- We reached Tenedos quickly, sacrificed to the gods,
the crews keen for home, but a quick return was not
in Zeus's plans, not yet: that cruel power
loosed a cursed feud on us once again.†p. 112.5
- But once he'd got off too, plowing the wine-dark sea
in his ribbed ships, and made a run to Malea's beetling cape,
farseeing Zeus decided to give the man rough sailing,
poured a hurricane down upon him, shrilling winds,
giant, rearing whitecaps, monstrous, mountains high.†p. 116.7
- Zeus's daughter—
they all hung closely on every word she said.†p. 118.3
- But Nestor held them there, objecting strongly:
"Zeus forbid—and the other deathless gods as well—
that you resort to your ship and put my house behind
like a rank pauper's without a stitch of clothing,
no piles of rugs, no blankets in his place
for host and guests to slumber soft in comfort.†p. 118.6
- Of all who dwell on Olympus, this was none but she,
Zeus's daughter, the glorious one, his third born,
who prized your gallant father among the Argives.†p. 119.5
- Mulling it in the bowl, old Nestor poured
a libation out, praying hard to Pallas Athena,
daughter of Zeus whose shield is storm and thunder.†p. 120.1
- Two men, but they look like kin of mighty Zeus himself.†
p. 125.5
- Both struck by the sight,
they marveled up and down the house of the warlord dear to Zeus—
a radiance strong as the moon or rising sun came flooding
through the high-roofed halls of illustrious Menelaus.†p. 126.1
- Surely Zeus's court on Olympus must be just like this,
the boundless glory of all this wealth inside!†p. 126.9
- But the red-haired warlord overheard his guest
and cut in quickly with winged words for both:
"No man alive could rival Zeus, dear boys,
with his everlasting palace and possessions.†p. 127.0
- And I swore that when he came I'd give him a hero's welcome,
him above all my comrades—if only Olympian Zeus,
farseeing Zeus, had granted us both safe passage
home across the sea in our swift trim ships.†p. 129.9
- And I swore that when he came I'd give him a hero's welcome,
him above all my comrades—if only Olympian Zeus,
farseeing Zeus, had granted us both safe passage
home across the sea in our swift trim ships.†p. 129.9
- Helen of Argos, daughter of Zeus, dissolved in tears,
Telemachus wept too, and so did Atreus' son Menelaus.†p. 130.3
- It's easy to spot the breed of a man whom Zeus
has marked for joy in birth and marriage both.†p. 131.1
- Take great King Nestor now:
Zeus has blessed him, all his livelong days,
growing rich and sleek in his old age at home,
his sons expert with spears and full of sense.†p. 131.1
- Then Zeus's daughter Helen thought of something else.†
p. 131.4
- So cunning the drugs that Zeus's daughter plied,
potent gifts from Polydamna the wife of Thon,
a woman of Egypt, land where the teeming soil
bears the richest yield of herbs in all the world:
many health itself when mixed in the wine,
and many deadly poison.†p. 131.7
- Zeus can present us
times of joy and times of grief in turn:
all lies within his power.†p. 131.9
- 'You should have offered Zeus and the other gods
a handsome sacrifice, then embarked, if you ever hoped
for a rapid journey home across the wine-dark sea.†p. 139.5
- It's not your destiny yet to see your loved ones,
reach your own grand house, your native land at last,
not till you sail back through Egyptian waters—
the great Nile swelled by the rains of Zeus—
and make a splendid rite to the deathless gods
who rule the vaulting skies.†p. 139.7
- 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.†p. 142.4
- All this because you are Helen's husband now—
the gods count you the son-in-law of Zeus.'†p. 142.7
- Back we went to the Nile swelled by the rains of Zeus,
I moored the ships and sacrificed in a splendid rite,
and once I'd slaked the wrath of the everlasting gods
I raised a mound for Agamemnon, his undying glory.†p. 142.9
- Zeus kill that brazen boy before he hits his prime!†
p. 145.8
- Zeus has given me torment—
me above all the others born and bred in my day.†p. 147.6
- I knew it all, I gave him all he asked for,
bread and mellow wine, but he made me take
a binding oath that I, I wouldn't tell you,
no, not till ten or a dozen days had passed
or you missed the lad yourself and learned he'd gone,
so tears would never mar your lovely face ...
Come, bathe now, put on some fresh clothes,
climb to the upper rooms with all your women
and pray to Pallas, daughter of storming Zeus—
she may save Telemachus yet, even at death's door.†p. 148.6
- And the queen bathed and put fresh clothing on,
climbed to the upper rooms with all her women
and sifting barley into a basket, prayed to Pallas,
"Hear me, daughter of Zeus whose shield is thunder—
tireless one, Athena!†p. 148.9
- As Dawn rose up from bed by her lordly mate Tithonus,
bringing light to immortal gods and mortal men,
the gods sat down in council, circling Zeus
the thunder king whose power rules the world.†p. 152.3