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[153] The prediction here put into the mouth of Leiodes is to be fulfilled in a manner which was very far from his thoughts. For other examples of this dramatic effect see 17. 355. Here it is especially in place, since Leiodes was a “θυοσκόος”, and as such had the gift of prophecy.

These despairing words of Leiodes may be illustrated by a story told in Pausanias (6. 8. 4) of the athlete Timanthes of Cleonae, who after he retired from public contests used every day to test his strength by stringing a great bow that he had; until once, having been absent for a short time, he found on returning that he could not perform the feat: upon which he lighted a pyre and threw himself alive into the flames.

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

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