an would come upon him for such a deed. Thus the young hero appeals to
the divine order and puts himself in harmony with its behests. Boldly
he declares, that if the Suitors continue in their ill-doing, "I shall
invoke the ever-living Gods; if Zeus may grant fit retribution for your
crimes, ye shall die within this palace unavenged." Truly a speech
given with a power which brings fulfillment; prophetic it must be, if
there be any Gods in the world. Already we have seen that Telemachus
was capable of this high mood, which communes with deity and utters the
decree from above. Behold, no sooner is the word uttered by the mortal,
than we have the divine response. It is in the form of an omen, the
flight of two eagles tearing each other as they fly to the right
through the houses of the town. Also the interpreter is present, who
tells the meaning of the sign, and stamps the words of Telemachus with
the seal of the Gods.

2. Here we pass to the second set of speeches which show more
distinctively the religious phase, in contrast to the preceding set,
which show rather the institutional phase, of the conflict; that is,
the Gods are the theme of the one, Family and State of the other. The
old augur Halitherses, the man of religion, explains the omen in full
harmony with what Telemachus has said; he prophesies the speedy return
of Ulysses and the punishment of the Suitors, unless they desist. Well
may the aged prophet foretell some such outcome, after seeing the
spirit of the son; Vengeance is indeed in the air, and is felt by the
sensitive seer, and also by the sensitive reader.

But what is the attitude of the Suitors toward such a view? Eurymachus
is the name of their speaker now, manifestly a representative man of
their kind. He derides the prophet: "Go home, old man, and forecast for
thy children!" He is a scoffer and skeptic; truly a spokesman of the
Suitors in their relation to the Gods, in whom they can have no living
faith; through long wickedness they imagine that there is no
retribution, they have come to believe their own lie. Impiety, then, is
the chief fact of this speech, which really denies the world-government
and the whole lesson of this poem. Thus the divine warning is
contemned, the call to a change of conduct goes unheeded.

3. Then we have the third set of speeches which are personal in their
leading note, and pertain to the absent Ulysses, whose kindness and
regal character are set forth by Mentor, his o