Gun Control Reform Activism

james james: In disguise, {Odysseus} works with his son Telemachus to devise the challenge to string his bow and shoot the straightest arrow. He tell Telemachus to hide all the weapons in the dining hall. When Telemachus is concerned that removing the weapons will seem suspect, Odysseus tells him to give a long line of subterfuge about how the weapons are tarnished from disuse and that having them around is a bad omen, "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence"
So this quote is not some great revelation about the evil that lies inside of every weapon, but a lie told with the ring of truth to allay the fears of unworthy men

.. you post baloney; you support the premise that 'the blade itself incites to violence', & try to argue contradictorily that it doesn't.
Odysseus subterfuge was that having tarnished weapons around in the smoke from the feast would've been a bad omen; there was no subterfuge about edged weapons not being complicit in inciting to violence. Odysseus cited a truism within his subterfuge, is apparent to me.

james james: When people who don't like guns say things like "The blade incites to deeds of violence", they are aping a line from the Odyssey that they don't understand and have taken out of context.

No, we are using it properly, it is you who has fabricated a ruse.

The line is poetic and beautiful, but it is still a lie told to disarm the enemy before they are slaughtered. It is not some beautiful self-evident truth about the evil inherent in weapons. It is a lie told to disarm the unwitting mob.

baloney; odysseus was afraid the sight of edged weapons would incite visitors & disrupt the feast:

Beginning of book XIX. Odysseus tells Telemachus to hide weapons, and if anyone asks why, to tell them that weapons are removed because smoke damages them, and also because in case of a quarrel view of weapons may lead to use of these weapons.
"Telemachus, all these war weapons we must stash inside, and when the suitors notice they're not there and question you, then reassure them, using gentle language: 'I've put them away in a place far from the smoke. Those weapons are no longer like the ones Odysseus left when he set off for Troy so long ago. They're tarnished. That's how much the fire's breath has reached them. Moreover, a god has set greater fear inside my heart—you may drink too much wine and then fight amongst yourselves and wound each other. That would shame the feast, disgrace your courtship. For iron by itself can draw a man to use it.'"
https://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/odyssey19.htm

I suspect this 'james james' with one post as of this post, is aping my own name jimmy, & is an erstwhile DU creepy troll.