Ancient Literature in our Modern World

So the first four books in the passage have much to do with Telemachos and the obstacles he faces while finding his father. The main obstacle are the men that have been inviting themselves into Odysseus’s home and eating his food, drinking his wine, and raping the women that work for the royal family. These men are there to wed the queen whom they believe to be widowed since they have not heard of any New from Odysseus in a long time. When Telemachos calls a meeting of all Ithakan men to ask them to leave his home. Zeus sends down two eagles who claw at each other over the head of the meeting. Halitherses, a reader of birds and their meaning, tells of an omen:

“Hear me now, men of Ithaka, what I have to tell you; but what I say will be mostly a warning to the suitors, for a great disaster is wheeling down on them. Surely Odysseus will not be long away from his family, but now, already, is somewhere close by, working out the death and destruction of all these men, and it will be an evil for many others of us who inhabit sunny Ithaka. So, well beforehand, let us think how we can make them stop, or better let them stop themselves. It will soon be better for them if they do so. I who foretell this am not untried, I know what I am saying”

I believe the omen is a foreshadow is what is definitely to come. In this case it is the “death and destruction” of the suitors who are taking advantage of the hospitality that Odysseus’s wife has been offering the suitors. This could turn into a Jacobean pogrom as we’ve read about in the past, on the other hand, it could be a well planned and thought out assassination plan. We can only tell as we read through the book.