He shall return, and take vengeance on all those who here dishonour his wife and his glorious son.'
He addresses Penelope (τ 303–7) in exactly the same words, except that, not being at supper, he omits the reference to 'this hospitable board', and to fill the vacant space in the line, expands the description of Zeus to 'highest and best of gods '. Lastly, in addressing a lady he omits the prophecy of vengeance.
On the evening when Odysseus had made his prediction to the swine-herd, Homer tells us that the night was σκοτομἠνιος, that is, that there was no Moon in the evening. (ξ 457.)
Again, we are twice told when the fatal day has come, that it is a feast day, the new moon festival no doubt (ν 156, 276), and then just before Penelope goes to fetch the bow, the seer Theoclymenus sees the portents of the impending doom of the suitors (ν 351–7):
'Ah, wretched men, what evil is this that you suffer? Shrouded in night are your heads and your faces and your knees beneath you; kindled is the sound of wailing, bathed in tears are your cheeks, and sprinkled with blood are the walls and the fair rafters. And full of ghosts is the porch and full the court, of ghosts that hasten down to Erebus beneath the darkness, and the Sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist hovers over all.'
'The Sun has perished out of heaven 'ought to mean a total eclipse of the Sun, and, as we have seen, the way is prepared for it by indications of the age of the Moon, all consistent with such a phenomenon. Plutarch[1] and Eustathius take it this way. Of recent commentators Monro notes that we do not hear of any actual darkness that day, and urges that the darkness or night is that of death, to which I should reply, Why should we be told of the darkness again, and why should not an eclipse be
- ↑ De Facie, 931 f.
