Benjamin West, Artist
This episode serves to build tension and prepare for the moment when Odysseus will strike down the suitors and reclaim his home. Throughout this section, divine signs are provided which foretell the events to come.
I figured for this post I would provide an example of one of the omens. The following is the vision which is bestowed upon Theoklymenos.
O lost sad men, what terror is this you suffer?
Night shrouds you to the knees, your heads, your faces;
dry retch of death runs round like fire in sticks;
your cheeks are streaming; these fair walls and pedestals
are dripping with crimson blood. And thick with shades
is the entry way, the courtyard thick with shades
passing athirst toward Erebos, into the dark,
the sun is quenched in heaven, foul mist hems us in…(Fitzgerald Translation: p. 386)
It’s a very dark, apocalyptic vision, and one which the suitors in their folly laugh at. I find this sadly similar to the warnings given by scientists regarding the coming impacts of climate change and the reactions by those who deny the inevitable. There have always been and always will be those who refuse to pay heed to the signs, until it is too late.
Stuff Jeff Reads 
Good point, Jeff. And I take little comfort in thinking that maybe I won’t live to see the worst, since even if so, my children and their children will.
Agreed!