against her will her, who brought me forth, who nourished[1] me; but my father is either alive or dead in some other part of the earth: but it would be a sad thing that I should pay[2]much to Icarius, if I should myself of my own accord send away my mother. For I shall suffer evil from her father,[3] and God will give other [evils], when my mother, departing from the house, shall invoke the hateful Furies; and there will be reproach upon me from men. So I never will utter this word. But if your mind is indignant at these things, go out of my house, and prepare other feasts, consuming your own possessions, taking turns at each other's houses. But if this seems to you more proper and better, to destroy with impunity the livelihood of one man, waste it, but I will call upon the immortal gods; If Jove ever will grant that deeds meet retribution, then shall ye perish unrevenged within the house."
Thus spoke Telemachus; but far-seeing Jove sent thither[4] for him two eagles to fly from aloft from the top of a mountain. They twain for some time flew with the gales of the wind, near one another, stretching out with their wings; but when they came to the middle of the noisy assembly, there turning round they shook their dense pinions, and looked over the heads of all, and portended[5] destruction: for tearing their cheeks and their necks around with their talons, they rushed on the right hand through their[6] houses and city. But they were astonished at the birds, when they beheld them with their eyes, and considered in their mind what things were about to be brought to pass. And the old hero Halitherses, the son of Mastor, addressed them, for he alone excelled those of his age in knowing [the omens of] birds and
- ↑ Eustathius observes, εἰσὶ γὰρ μητέρες, αἵ τίκτουσι μὲν, οὐκ ἐκθρέψουσι δὲ, ἀλλ' ὡς εἰπεῖν ἐκτιθέασι ταῖς τιθηνοῖς.
- ↑ It was a law, that when a man sent a woman away from his house, he was to pay a fine to her father and relations. Scholiast. Nitzsch and Loewe, however, understand "aliqua injuriæ Icario illatæ expiatio," which seems more simple than to restrict ἀποτίνειν to the mere notion of paying a fine.
- ↑ i. e. Icarius. See Loewe.
- ↑ "προέηκε, non tam præmisit, quam illuc misit." Loewe.
- ↑ See Buttm. Lexil. p. 445.
- ↑ i. e. those of the Ithacans. But we find "domos avium," in Lucret. i. 19.
