Leodes
Encyclopedia
Leodes, a diviner, was a minor suitor of Penelope
. He had darkly predicted that Odysseus
would return to avenge the suitors' abuse of hospitality
. He was the last person whom Odysseus killed in his homecoming rampage, decapitated while pleading for his life:
Penelope
In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him....
. He had darkly predicted that Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
would return to avenge the suitors' abuse of hospitality
Hospitality
Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resorts, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travelers...
. He was the last person whom Odysseus killed in his homecoming rampage, decapitated while pleading for his life:
Leodes rushed in and caught the knees of Odysseus,
and spoke to him in winged words and supplication:
'I am at your knees, Odysseus. Respect me, have mercy;
for I claim that never in your halls did I say or do anything
wrong to any one of the women, but always was trying
to stop any one of the other suitors who acted in that way.
But they would not listen to me and keep their hands off evil.
So by their own recklessness they have found a shameful
death, but I was their diviner, and I did nothing;
but I must fall, since there is no gratitude for past favors.'
Then looking darkly at him spoke resourceful Odysseus:
'If you claim to be the diviner among these people,
many a time you must have prayed in my palace, asking
that the completion of my sweet homecoming be far off
from me, that my dear wife would go off with you, and bear you
children. So you cannot escape from sorry destruction.'
So he spoke, and in his heavy hand caught up a sword
that was lying there on the ground where Agelaos had dropped it
when he was killed. With this he cut through the neck at the middle,
and the head of Leodes dropped in the dust while he was still speaking.
(Odyssey, Lattimore translation, XXII. 310-229)