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[70] “σχέσθε, φίλοι”, ‘let be, my friends, and suffer me to pine in sorrowful grief all by myself.’ By the title “φίλοι” Telemachus addresses not the suitors, but the Ithacans, and especially the “γέροντες”, whose sons were among the number of the suitors. After the speech of Antinous, however, he addresses the suitors directly (inf. 138 foll.), and it seems clear that they had considerable support among the citizens of Ithaca, as Antinous implies, at a later period in the action, where he acknowledges “λαοὶ δ᾽ οὐκέτι πάμπαν ἐφ̓ ἡμῖν ἦρα φέρουσιν” ( Od.16. 375). Nitzsch rightly observes that the wooing of Penelope was not their real purpose and aim, except as a means to, or a cloak for, their designs upon the power and property of the absent Odysseus (cp. Od.22. 49-53); and this view serves to justify the signal vengeance that was taken on them.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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