Now or Never

Yet still I think of that unfortunate one -if perhaps he will return and scatter the suitors in his house.

He is expecting Odysseus' return at this moment, otherwise he would have left long ago. Odysseus the stranger then said to him:

Odysseus will come home while you are still here! You will see him with your own eyes,

Philoitios answers:

I hope, stranger, that the son of Kronos will bring this to pass. Then you would see what my strength is, and how my hands obey. And eumaios too prayed to all the gods that the wise Odysseus would soon return to his house.

It is now or never!

Philoitios was planning to run away from this situation. However:

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I would long ago have fled to some other of the powerful chieftains, for the situation here has become intolerable.

Philoitios says:

... but in the meantime the suitors schemed on the death and fate of Telemachos.

After an omen appeared a leader of the suitors said:

This plan will not run to our liking, this murder of Telemachos. So let us think of the feast!