The Odyssey
What characteristics is Odysseus displaying from lines 166-176? Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one?
And vessels full of whey were brimming there—
165 bowls of earthenware and pails for milking.
My men came pressing round me pleading:
‘Why not
take these cheeses, get them stowed, come back,
throw open all the pens, and mke a run for it?
We’ll drive the kids and lambs aboard. We say
170 put out again on good salt water!’
Ah,
how sound that was! Yet I refused. I wished
to see the cave man, hat he had to offer—
no pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends.
We lit a fire, burnt an offering,
175 and took some cheese to eat; then sat in silence
around the embers, waiting. When he came
he had a load of dry boughs on his shoulder
to stoke his fire at suppertime. He dumped it
with a great crash into that hollow cave,
180 and we all scattered fast to the far wall.