“When she had said this Minerva went away to Olympus, which they say is the everlasting home of the gods. Here no wind beats roughly, and neither rain nor snow can fall; but it abides in everlasting sunshine and in a great peacefulness of light, wherein the blessed gods are illumined for ever and ever. This was the place to which the goddess went when she had given instructions to the girl.”
·Direct
Laertes declared that the gods were still in Olympus.
See evidence text
“Laertes’ strength failed him when he heard the convincing proofs which his son had given him. He threw his arms about him, and Ulysses had to support him, or he would have gone off into a swoon; but as soon as he came to, and was beginning to recover his senses, he said, ‘O father Jove, then you gods are still in Olympus after all, if the suitors have really been punished for their insolence and folly. Nevertheless, I am much afraid that I shall have all the townspeople of Ithaca up here directly, and they will be sending messengers everywhere throughout the cities of the Cephallenians.’
”
The gods decree Ulysses’ return to Ithaca and have begun to pity him, though his troubles will continue.
See evidence text
“the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca; even then, however, when he was among his own people, his troubles were not yet over; nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him”
·Direct
The other gods assemble in Olympian Jove’s house while Neptune is away.
See evidence text
“the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove”
·Hypothetical
If the gods are united, Neptune can hardly resist them.
See evidence text
“if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us”
·Direct
The crew makes drink offerings to the immortal and everlasting gods.
See evidence text
“made drink offerings to the immortal gods that are from everlasting”
·Reported
Minerva says the gods have been with Telemachus from birth to the present.
See evidence text
“the gods have been with you from the time of your birth until now”
·Direct
The gods meet in council.
See evidence text
“the gods met in council and with them”
·Direct
The gods recognize one another regardless of how far apart they live.
See evidence text
“the gods all know each other, no matter how far they live from one another”
·Reported
Calypso accuses the gods of jealousy when a goddess openly takes a mortal man as her mate.
See evidence text
“You are always jealous and hate seeing a goddess take a fancy to a mortal man, and live with him in open matrimony”
·Reported
The blessed gods are said to be illuminated forever in Olympus.
See evidence text
“Olympus, which they say is the everlasting home of the gods. Here no wind beats roughly, and neither rain nor snow can fall; but it abides in everlasting sunshine and in a great peacefulness of light, wherein the blessed gods are illumined for ever and ever”
·Direct
The gods endowed Alcinous’s house with its splendours.
See evidence text
“the splendours with which the gods had endowed the house of king Alcinous”
·Reported
The gods are said to attend Phaeacian feasts openly and reveal themselves without concealment to solitary wayfarers.
See evidence text
“the gods are departing from their usual practice, for hitherto they have made themselves perfectly clear to us when we have been offering them hecatombs. They come and sit at our feasts just like one of our selves, and if any solitary wayfarer happens to stumble upon some one or other of them, they affect no concealment”
·Remembered
Unlike mortal men, the gods can uproot Moly and do whatever they like.
See evidence text
“mortal men cannot uproot it, but the gods can do whatever they like”
·Remembered
The gods produce signs and wonders in the slaughtered cattle: crawling hides, lowing joints, and noisily animate meat.
See evidence text
“the gods began at once to show signs and wonders among us, for the hides of the cattle crawled about, and the joints upon the spits began to low like cows, and the meat, whether cooked or raw, kept on making a noise just as cows do”
·Direct
The blessed gods live in heaven and receive drink-offerings from the seated company.
See evidence text
“drink-offering to the blessed gods that live in heaven”
·Direct
The gods receive the boar’s facial bristles while Eumaeus prays for Ulysses’s return.
See evidence text
“cut bristles from the pig’s face and throw them into the fire, praying to all the gods as he did so that Ulysses might return home again”
·Direct
The immortal gods receive the first piece as a burnt sacrifice and a drink-offering.
See evidence text
“he cut off the first piece and offered it as a burnt sacrifice to the immortal gods; then he made them a drink-offering”
·Reported
The gods are said to be able to make any man look rich or poor with ease.
See evidence text
“it is an easy matter for the gods who live in heaven to make any man look either rich or poor”
·Reported
A suitor says gods travel the world disguised as foreigners to judge wrongdoing and righteousness.
See evidence text
“the gods go about disguised in all sorts of ways as people from foreign countries, and travel about the world to see who do amiss and who righteously”
·Remembered
The gods killed the parents of Pandareus’s daughters, leaving them orphaned.
See evidence text
“The daughters of Pandareus lost their father and mother, for the gods killed them, so they were left orphans”
·Reported
Eumaeus prays to all the gods for Ulysses’s return.
See evidence text
“Eumaeus prayed to all the gods that Ulysses might return”