Meanwhile in Ithaca the suitors threw discus and spear before Odysseus’s house. Noemon son of Phronius asked Antinous when Telemachus would return from Pylos — he needed his ship for Elis. They were astounded; they had thought the boy was on the farm. Antinous demanded who went with him and whether the ship was taken by force. Noemon said he gave it willingly; the best young men went, and Mentor — or a god in his likeness — though Mentor himself had been seen in town the day before.
Antinous’s black heart filled with rage, his eyes like blazing fire. “A great deed has been done outrageously — against the will of so many of us the young man is gone. May Zeus destroy his strength before he reaches manhood. Give me a swift ship and twenty companions; I will watch the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos. It will be a bitter journey for him after his father.” They approved, rose, and went inside.