All 9 Uses of
omen
in
The Odyssey, by Homer (translated by: Butcher & Lang)
- The reader will observe a series of portents, prophecies, and omens, which grow more numerous and admonishing as their doom draws nearer to the wooers.†
Book Intr. *omens = signs of what will happen in the future
- So spake he, and the dear son of Odysseus was glad at the omen of the word; nor sat he now much longer, but he burned to speak, and he stood in mid assembly; and the herald Peisenor, skilled in sage counsels, placed the staff in his hands.†
Book 2omen = sign of something about to happen
- Then Theoclymenus called him apart from his fellows, and clasped his hand and spake and hailed him: 'Telemachus, surely not without the god's will hath the bird flown out on the right, for I knew when I saw him that he was a bird of omen.†
Book 15
- So clear was the omen of the bird that I saw as I sat on the decked ship, and I proclaimed it to Telemachus.'†
Book 17
- So they spake, and goodly Odysseus rejoiced in the omen of the words.†
Book 18
- So he took up the mantle and the fleeces whereon he was lying, and set them on a high seat in the hall, and bare out the bull's hide out of doors and laid it there, and lifting up his hands he prayed to Zeus: 'Father Zeus, if ye gods of your good will have led me over wet and dry, to mine own country, after ye had plagued me sore, let some one I pray of the folk that are waking show me a word of good omen within, and without let some sign also be revealed to me from Zeus.'†
Book 20
- Moreover a woman, a grinder at the mill, uttered a voice of omen from within the house hard by, where stood the mills of the shepherd of the people.†
Book 20
- Thus she spake, and goodly Odysseus was glad in the omen of the voice and in the thunder of Zeus; for he thought that he had gotten his vengeance on the guilty.†
Book 20
- Ill-fated was he, and yet he had birds of good omen when he fared away, birds on the right; wherefore I sped him gladly on his road, and gladly he departed, and the heart of us twain hoped yet to meet in friendship on a day and to give splendid gifts.'†
Book 24
Definition:
a sign of something about to happen