Divine madness transforms the suitors’ laughter into a death omen

Evidence

So he vowed and Athena set off uncontrollable laughter in the suitors, crazed them out of their minds —mad, hysterical laughter seemed to break from the jaws of strangers, not their own, and the meat they were eating oozed red with blood — tears flooded their eyes, hearts possessed by grief. — Homer; Robert Fagles; Bernard Knox, The Odyssey, 4113

Categorization

• DEFINE: A classic example of the Homeric ‘atē’ (divine-inflicted delusion) that precedes destruction.
• XREF: This uncanny portent of blood and strangers’ voices recalls the omens preceding the suitors’ death elsewhere in the poem. — connects to: Humor and laughter were deployed to appease angry gods

Related

• Humor and laughter were deployed to appease angry gods (similarity 0.94)