Odyssey: A Daily Odyssey through Homer’s The Odyssey
Aug 13, 2026 · 15 min · 9 segments
War does not claim this king — welcome does. The deepest wounds are dealt at home. In *The Odyssey*, Book 11, Odysseus asks Agamemnon how death found him after Troy. The fallen king answers with…
Landon SolanoHost
At the sight of him I wept and was moved with compassion, and uttering my voice spake to him winged words: "Most renowned son of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men, say what doom overcame thee of death that lays men at their length? Did Poseidon smite thee in thy ships, raising the dolorous blast of contrary winds, or did unfriendly men do thee hurt upon the land whilst thou were cutting off their oxen and fair flocks of sheep, or fighting to win a city and the women thereof?" So spake I, and straightway he answered and said unto me: "Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, it was not Poseidon that smote me in my ships and raised the dolorous blast of contrary winds, nor did unfriendly men do me hurt upon the land, but Aegisthus it was that wrought me death and doom and slew me with the aid of my accursed wife, as one slays an ox in the stall, after he had bidden me to his house and entertained me at a feast.
Even so I died by a death most pitiful, and round me my company likewise were slain without ceasing, like swine glittering tusks which are slaughtered in the house of a rich and mighty man, whether at a wedding banquet or a joint feast or a rich clan drinking.
Ere now hast thou been at the slaying of many man, killed in single fight or in strong battle, yet thou wouldst have sorrowed the most at this sight, how we lay in the hall around the mixing bowl and at the laden boards, and that the floor ran with blood.
And the most pitiful of all that I heard was the voice of the daughter of Priam, of Cassandra, whom hard by me the crafty Clytemnestra slew.
Then I strove to raise my hands as I was dying upon the sword; but to earth they fell, and that shameless one turned her back on me, and had not the heart to draw down my eyelids with her fingers nor to close my mouth.
So surely there is nought more terrible and shameless than a woman who imagines such evil in her heart, even as she too has planned a foul deed, fashioning death for her wedded lord.
Verily I had thought to come home most welcome to my children and my thralls; but she out of her depth of evil knowledge hath shed me shame on herself and on all womankind, which shall be forever, even on the upright." You know, I thought I'd be clever after those Polyphemus episodes almost blew my voice out.
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At the sight of him I wept and was moved with compassion, and uttering my voice spake to him winged words: "Most renowned son of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men, say what doom overcame thee of death that lays men at their length? Did Poseidon smite thee in thy ships, raising the dolorous blast of contrary winds, or did unfriendly men do thee hurt upon the land whilst thou were cutting off their oxen and fair flocks of sheep, or fighting to win a city and the women thereof?" So spake I, and straightway he answered and said unto me: "Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, it was not Poseidon that smote me in my ships and raised the dolorous blast of contrary winds, nor did unfriendly men do me hurt upon the land, but Aegisthus it was that wrought me death and doom and slew me with the aid of my accursed wife, as one slays an ox in the stall, after he had bidden me to his house and entertained me at a feast.
Even so I died by a death most pitiful, and round me my company likewise were slain without ceasing, like swine glittering tusks which are slaughtered in the house of a rich and mighty man, whether at a wedding banquet or a joint feast or a rich clan drinking.
Ere now hast thou been at the slaying of many man, killed in single fight or in strong battle, yet thou wouldst have sorrowed the most at this sight, how we lay in the hall around the mixing bowl and at the laden boards, and that the floor ran with blood.
And the most pitiful of all that I heard was the voice of the daughter of Priam, of Cassandra, whom hard by me the crafty Clytemnestra slew.
Then I strove to raise my hands as I was dying upon the sword; but to earth they fell, and that shameless one turned her back on me, and had not the heart to draw down my eyelids with her fingers nor to close my mouth.
So surely there is nought more terrible and shameless than a woman who imagines such evil in her heart, even as she too has planned a foul deed, fashioning death for her wedded lord.
Verily I had thought to come home most welcome to my children and my thralls; but she out of her depth of evil knowledge hath shed me shame on herself and on all womankind, which shall be forever, even on the upright." You know, I thought I'd be clever after those Polyphemus episodes almost blew my voice out.
