τοὺς δʼ ἐπεὶ οὖν δμῳαὶ λοῦσαν καὶ χρῖσαν ἐλαίῳ,
ἀμφὶ δʼ ἄρα χλαίνας οὔλας βάλον ἠδὲ χιτῶνας,50
ἔς ῥα θρόνους ἕζοντο παρʼ Ἀτρεΐδην Μενέλαον.
χέρνιβα δʼ ἀμφίπολος προχόῳ ἐπέχευε φέρουσα
καλῇ χρυσείῃ ὑπὲρ ἀργυρέοιο λέβητος,
νίψασθαι· παρὰ δὲ ξεστὴν ἐτάνυσσε τράπεζαν.
σῖτον δʼ αἰδοίη ταμίη παρέθηκε φέρουσα,55
εἴδατα πόλλʼ ἐπιθεῖσα, χαριζομένη παρεόντων.
δαιτρὸς δὲ κρειῶν πίνακας παρέθηκεν ἀείρας
παντοίων, παρὰ δέ σφι τίθει χρύσεια κύπελλα.
τὼ καὶ δεικνύμενος προσέφη ξανθὸς Μενέλαος·
σίτου θʼ ἅπτεσθον καὶ χαίρετον. αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα60
δείπνου πασσαμένω εἰρησόμεθʼ, οἵ τινές ἐστον
ἀνδρῶν· οὐ γὰρ σφῷν γε γένος ἀπόλωλε τοκήων,
ἀλλʼ ἀνδρῶν γένος ἐστὲ διοτρεφέων βασιλήων
σκηπτούχων, ἐπεὶ οὔ κε κακοὶ τοιούσδε τέκοιεν.
ὣς φάτο, καί σφιν νῶτα βοὸς παρὰ πίονα θῆκεν65
ὄπτʼ ἐν χερσὶν ἑλών, τά ῥά οἱ γέρα πάρθεσαν αὐτῷ.
οἱ δʼ ἐπʼ ὀνείαθʼ ἑτοῖμα προκείμενα χεῖρας ἴαλλον.
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος ἐξ ἔρον ἕντο,
δὴ τότε Τηλέμαχος προσεφώνεε Νέστορος υἱόν,
ἄγχι σχὼν κεφαλήν, ἵνα μὴ πευθοίαθʼ οἱ ἄλλοι·70
φράζεο, Νεστορίδη, τῷ ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ,
χαλκοῦ τε στεροπὴν κὰδ δώματα ἠχήεντα
χρυσοῦ τʼ ἠλέκτρου τε καὶ ἀργύρου ἠδʼ ἐλέφαντος.
Ζηνός που τοιήδε γʼ Ὀλυμπίου ἔνδοθεν αὐλή,
ὅσσα τάδʼ ἄσπετα πολλά· σέβας μʼ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα.75
τοῦ δʼ ἀγορεύοντος ξύνετο ξανθὸς Μενέλαος,
καί σφεας φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·
τέκνα φίλʼ, ἦ τοι Ζηνὶ βροτῶν οὐκ ἄν τις ἐρίζοι·
ἀθάνατοι γὰρ τοῦ γε δόμοι καὶ κτήματʼ ἔασιν·
ἀνδρῶν δʼ ἤ κέν τίς μοι ἐρίσσεται, ἠὲ καὶ οὐκί,80
κτήμασιν. ἦ γὰρ πολλὰ παθὼν καὶ πόλλʼ ἐπαληθεὶς
ἠγαγόμην ἐν νηυσὶ καὶ ὀγδοάτῳ ἔτει ἦλθον,
Κύπρον Φοινίκην τε καὶ Αἰγυπτίους ἐπαληθείς,
Αἰθίοπάς θʼ ἱκόμην καὶ Σιδονίους καὶ Ἐρεμβοὺς
καὶ Λιβύην, ἵνα τʼ ἄρνες ἄφαρ κεραοὶ τελέθουσι.85
τρὶς γὰρ τίκτει μῆλα τελεσφόρον εἰς ἐνιαυτόν.
ἔνθα μὲν οὔτε ἄναξ ἐπιδευὴς οὔτε τι ποιμὴν
τυροῦ καὶ κρειῶν οὐδὲ γλυκεροῖο γάλακτος,
ἀλλʼ αἰεὶ παρέχουσιν ἐπηετανὸν γάλα θῆσθαι.
ἧος ἐγὼ περὶ κεῖνα πολὺν βίοτον συναγείρων90
ἠλώμην, τῆός μοι ἀδελφεὸν ἄλλος ἔπεφνεν
λάθρῃ, ἀνωιστί, δόλῳ οὐλομένης ἀλόχοιο·
ὣς οὔ τοι χαίρων τοῖσδε κτεάτεσσιν ἀνάσσω.
καὶ πατέρων τάδε μέλλετʼ ἀκουέμεν, οἵ τινες ὑμῖν
εἰσίν, ἐπεὶ μάλα πολλὰ πάθον, καὶ ἀπώλεσα οἶκον95
εὖ μάλα ναιετάοντα, κεχανδότα πολλὰ καὶ ἐσθλά.
ὧν ὄφελον τριτάτην περ ἔχων ἐν δώμασι μοῖραν
ναίειν, οἱ δʼ ἄνδρες σόοι ἔμμεναι, οἳ τότʼ ὄλοντο
Τροίῃ ἐν εὐρείῃ ἑκὰς Ἄργεος ἱπποβότοιο.
notes
Bathed, clothed, and seated next to the king, the young guests enjoy lavish hospitality.
read full essay
Servants with golden pitchers pour water over their hands into silver basins. Beside them is a table of polished stone, loaded with food. Menelaus is in an expansive mood, urging them to eat and drink, with questions to follow about who they are. Judging from their appearance, their parents, he says, must be noble. Telemachus is suitably impressed with this display of wealth, murmuring in wonder to Peisistratus over the gleaming bronze, gold, amber, silver, and ivory all through the echoing hallways. This, he imagines, is what the house of Zeus must look like. Menelaus’s response is self-deprecating: No mortal can rival the gods in wealth and possessions; though his wealth is perhaps more than other men’s—or perhaps not—he endured much suffering as he gathered this wealth on his way home.
The portrait of Menelaus as not quite at ease amid his abundance is one manifestation of a pervasive undercurrent of anxiety we will see running through the episode in Sparta. The opulent splendor of the royal palace seems at first to suggest that Menelaus and Helen have escaped the long shadow of the Trojan War and their role in provoking it. But as that past keeps intruding on the present through the stories told by the king and queen, the luminous surface of postwar life is disturbed by a more complex, layered existence, where buried resentments bubble up. The focus in the stories on Odysseus, in response to his son’s questions, contributes to the blurring of temporal boundaries. His journey home is not finished. For him, the separation between wartime and the comfortable postwar existence in Pylos and Sparta does not exist. When Menelaus and Helen conjure him up through their memories, he brings back with him the horror of the war and the moral ambiguity of their own choices in the face of it.
Menelaus goes on to describe his seven years of wandering after he left Troy. Plundering his way through the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, he and his men pile up the wealth that he has just confessed has become a matter of indifference to him, because while he was enriching himself, his brother was murdered in Argos. He would gladly give up two-thirds of his wealth in exchange for the men who died at Troy. A persistent strain of melancholy runs through the Spartan king’s life and seems to raise the question of how we are to weigh his misery against the splendor that surrounds him: What makes a good life? We will have occasion to revisit this issue when we find Odysseus on Calypso’s island.
Menelaus’s struggles prefigure the poet’s emerging portrait of Odysseus in several ways. The figure of the roving adventurer in Egypt will surface twice more in the poem, in stories that Odysseus tells to Eumaeus and Antinous when he returns to Ithaka disguised as a beggar. Though we understand the personae the hero inhabits in these tales to be fictional, they often resemble the Odysseus we come to know as he makes his way home. While Athena and those who love Odysseus and await his return see him as sweet, loving, and generous, openly expressing his emotions (4.689–95; 5.7–12; 11.202–3; 14.61–67, 138, 146–47; 21.31–41), none of these qualities is anywhere evident in the poem’s (or his own) recounting of his trials. Rather, it is the wanderer in search of treasure who most resembles the crafty, furtive, and deceptive figure we follow across the sea. The riddles of human identity are always present in the Odyssey, as the poet moves from the initial question, “where is Odysseus,” to the more complicated quandary, “who is Odysseus?” (see essay on Book 1.19)
As usual, Homer creates his hero by inviting us to look for him through the lens of other characters. Both Agamemnon and Menelaus will be primary sources for this creative process. We have already seen how the poet establishes Agamemnon’s disastrous homecoming as an ongoing cautionary tale for Odysseus. Menelaus’s story of his sojourn in Egypt will provide a backdrop against which we can measure the implications of the definitive existential choice we will soon see Odysseus make in response to Calypso’s offer of immortality in Book 5 (203–24).
Further Reading
Van Nortwick, T. 2008. The Unknown Odysseus: Alternate Worlds in Homer’s Odyssey, 71–78. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
50 ἀμφὶ: “around them.”
52-58 = 1.136–42.
52 χέρνιβα: object of the verb ἐπέχευε and the participle φέρουσα.
52 προχόῳ ἐπέχευε: the water is poured from (or with, dative of instrument) the pitcher (προχόῳ) and over(ὑπὲρ) the basin (λέβητος).
54 νίψασθαι: infinitive of purpose > νίζω.
54 παρὰ: “beside them.”
56 χαριζομένη παρεόντων: “giving freely of the things at hand.” For the construction with a partitive genitive, see LSJ χαρίζω II.2 and Smyth 1343.
56 παρεόντων: neut. gen. pl. ptc. > πάρειμι.
57 ἀείρας: masc. sing. aor. act. ptc. > ἀείρω.
59 τὼ καὶ δεικνύμενος: “and welcoming them …” (Cunliffe δείκνυμι 6).
60 ἅπτεσθον: dual imperat. > ἅπτω. The verb, like other verbs of touching or taking hold of, takes a genitive (Smyth 1345).
61 πασσαμένω: dual aor. mid. ptc. > πατέομαι. The verb takes a genitive.
62 οὐ … ἀπόλωλε: “is not lost,” that is, it is evident.
62 σφῷν: 2nd pers. dat. dual pron. (a contraction of σφῶιν found only here).
63 ἀνδρῶν γένος ἐστὲ: the genitive is a predicate genitive of belonging (Smyth 1303) and γένος is an accusative of respect.
65 νῶτα: neut. pl., singular in sense (Smyth 1000 and LSJ νῶτον). The backbone (or chine) of the bull was considered the choicest portion (γέρα, 66).
65 παρὰ … θῆκεν: “served up,” tmesis > παρατίθημι.
66 ὄπτ(α): neut. pl., modifying νῶτα, which is the object of the verb παρὰ … θῆκεν and the participle ἑλών.
66 οἱ … αὐτῷ: οἱ is the masculine nominative plural the subject of the verb, referring to the Spartans or, more specifically, the servers at the feast, and αὐτῷ is Menelaus.
66 γέρα: plural for singular. Many of these plurals, like νῶτα and γέρα, may simply be what Stanford calls the “poetic plural” and Smyth the “plural of majesty” (Smyth 1006).
67–68 a repetition of 1.149–50. Both lines appear numerous times in Homer.
67 ὀνείαθ᾽: = ὀνείατα, which in the context of this formula means “food” (LSJ ὄνειαρ).
68 πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος: obj. gens., with ἔρον.
68 ἐξ … ἕντο: “satisfied,” tmesis > ἐξίημι (LSJ ἐξίημι).
70 πευθοίαθ᾽: πευθοίατο = πεύθοιντο, 3rd pl. pres. mid. opt. > πεύθομαι (an older form of πυνθάνομαι). On the ending –ατο for the 3rd person plural, see Smyth 465.f.D. This line is a repetition of 1.157.
71 φράζεο: “observe,” “look at,” 2nd sing. mid. imperat. (LSJ φράζω II.4).
72 κὰδ: = κατὰ.
74 τοιήδε: understand the verb ἐστι, with αὐλή as predicate.
75 ὅσσα(ε): “because here (τάδ᾽) there is so much ...,” = ὅτι τοσαῦτα τάδ᾽ (ἐστιν).
76 ξύνετο: “heard,” with genitive of person (LSJ συνίημι II.1).
78 Ζηνὶ: dative of association with ἐρίζοι (Smyth 1523).
79 ἀθάνατοι: modifying both δόμοι καὶ κτήματ(α), but agreeing in gender with the nearer subject.
79 τοῦ: “his” (Ζηνός).
79 ἔασιν: 3rd pl. pres. act. indic. > εἰμί (for this form, see Smyth 768D).
80 κέν … ἐρίσσεται: “may compete with,” κέν + fut. indic., indicating conditionality (Smyth 1793), or possibly “will compete with,” anticipatory (short-vowel) subj. (Smyth 1810).
81 κτήμασιν: “for wealth” (LSJ ἐρίζω A.I.2).
82 ἠγαγόμην: understand κτήματα as the object.
83 Κύπρον Φοινίκην τε καὶ Αἰγυπτίους: accusatives of goal of motion, or “terminal accusatives” (Smyth 1588). Phoenicia and Sidon (84) were both located in what is now Lebanon.
84 Ἐρεμβοὺς: the Eremboi cannot be positively identified. Strabo (1.1.3) identifies them as Τρωγλοδύτας Ἄραβας, “cave-dwelling Arabs.”
85 ἵνα: “where.”
85 ἄφαρ: that is, at birth.
86 τίκτει: sing., with the neuter plural subject μῆλα.
87 ἐπιδευὴς: understand ἐστιν.
89 παρέχουσιν: the subject is μῆλα, here with a plural verb.
89 θῆσθαι: infinitive of purpose > θάομαι (Cunliffe θάομαι 2).
90 ἧος … / … τῆός: “while.” The second element in the correlative pair (τῆός) need not be translated. ἧος = ἕως.
90 περὶ κεῖνα: referring to all the places mentioned in 83–85.
91 ἠλώμην: impf. > ἀλάομαι.
94 πατέρων: “from your fathers,” genitive of source (Smyth 1411).
94 μέλλετ(ε) ἀκουέμεν: “you are likely to have heard,” aor. infin., for perfect (Smyth 1940).
96 ναιετάοντα: “situated,” acc. sing. pres. act. ptc. > ναιετάω (LSJ ναιετάω II).
96 κεχανδότα: “containing,” acc. sing. pf. act. ptc. > χανδάνω.
97 ὧν ὄφελον τριτάτην περ ἔχων ἐν δώμασι μοῖραν / ναίειν: ὄφελον ναίειν ἔχων τριτάτην περ μοῖραντούτων ἐν δώμασι. ὄφελον is unaugmented. For ὤφελον + infin. expressing an unattainable wish, see Smyth 1781 and LSJ ὀφείλω II.3).
98 ἔμμεναι: also governed by ὄφελον.