How we cite our quotes: (Book.Line)
Quote #7
(Telemachos:) 'If only the gods would give me such strength as he has to take revenge on the suitors for their overbearing oppression. They force their way upon me and recklessly plot against me. No, the gods have spun out no such strand of prosperity for me and my father. Now we must even have to endure it.' (3.205-209)
Telemachos may think that he's enduring the suitors, but somehow he doesn't get much credit for it. What's the difference between Telemachos' perseverance and Odysseus'?
Quote #8
(Odysseus:) '[…] what I want and all my days I pine for is to go back to my house and see my day of homecoming. And if some god batters me far out on the wine-blue water, I will endure it, keeping a stubborn spirit inside me, for already I have suffered much and done much hard work on the waves and in the fighting. So let this adventure follow.' (5.219-224)
Basically, Odysseus is doubling down: he's already put so much into this voyage home that he's not going to give up now. (Although, if you ask us, he must have been a little tempted by Alkinoös' offer of Nausikaa.)
Quote #9
(Athene:) '[I will] tell you all the troubles you are destined to suffer in your well-wrought house; but you must, of necessity, endure all, and tell no one out of all the men and the women that you have come back from your wanderings, but you must endure much grief in silence, standing and facing men in their violence.' (13.306-310)
Great. Odysseus has finally made it back home, but he can't just waltz into his house. First, he has to kill a bunch of people. Awesome!