An old man who was there, Halitherses by name, a man skilled in the
signs made by birds, told those who were around what was foreshown by
the combat of the eagles in the air. 'Odysseus,' he said, 'is not far
from his friends. He will return, and his return will mean affliction
for those who insult his house. Now let them make an end of their
mischief.' But the wooers only laughed at the old man, telling him he
should go home and prophesy to his children.

Then arose another old man whose name was Mentor, and he was one who had
been a friend and companion of Odysseus. He spoke to the council saying:

'Never again need a King be gentle in his heart. For kind and gentle to
you all was your King, Odysseus. And now his son asks you for help and
you do not hurry to give it him. It is not so much an affliction to me
that these wooers waste his goods as that you do not rise up to forbid
it. But let them persist in doing it on the hazard of their own heads.
For a doom will come on them, I say. And I say again to you of the
council: you are many and the wooers are few: Why then do you not put
them away from the house of Odysseus?'

But no one in the council took the side of Telemachus and Halitherses
and Mentor--so powerful were the wooers and so fearful of them were the
men of the council. The wooers looked at Telemachus and his friends with
mockery. Then for the last time Telemachus rose up and spoke to the
council.

'I have spoken in the council, and the men of Ithaka know, and the gods
know, the rights and wrongs of my case. All I ask of you now is that you
give me a swift ship with twenty youths to be my crew so that I may go