ὣς ἔφατ᾽, ἐν δὲ γέλως ὦρτ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν.

οὐδὲ Ποσειδάωνα γέλως ἔχε, λίσσετο δ᾽ αἰεὶ

Ἥφαιστον κλυτοεργὸν ὅπως λύσειεν Ἄρηα.345

καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·

"λῦσον· ἐγὼ δέ τοι αὐτὸν ὑπίσχομαι, ὡς σὺ κελεύεις,

τίσειν αἴσιμα πάντα μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν."

τὸν δ᾽ αὖτε προσέειπε περικλυτὸς ἀμφιγυήεις·

"μή με, Ποσείδαον γαιήοχε, ταῦτα κέλευε·350

δειλαί τοι δειλῶν γε καὶ ἐγγύαι ἐγγυάασθαι.

πῶς ἂν ἐγώ σε δέοιμι μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν,

εἴ κεν Ἄρης οἴχοιτο χρέος καὶ δεσμὸν ἀλύξας;"

τὸν δ᾽ αὖτε προσέειπε Ποσειδάων ἐνοσίχθων·

‘Ἥφαιστ᾽, εἴ περ γάρ κεν Ἄρης χρεῖος ὑπαλύξας355

οἴχηται φεύγων, αὐτός τοι ἐγὼ τάδε τίσω."

τὸν δ᾽ ἠμείβετ᾽ ἔπειτα περικλυτὸς ἀμφιγυήεις·

"οὐκ ἔστ᾽ οὐδὲ ἔοικε τεὸν ἔπος ἀρνήσασθαι."

ὣς εἰπὼν δεσμὸν ἀνίει μένος Ἡφαίστοιο.

τὼ δ᾽ ἐπεὶ ἐκ δεσμοῖο λύθεν, κρατεροῦ περ ἐόντος,360

αὐτίκ᾽ ἀναΐξαντε ὁ μὲν Θρῄκηνδε βεβήκει,

ἡ δ᾽ ἄρα Κύπρον ἵκανε φιλομμειδὴς Ἀφροδίτη,

ἐς Πάφον: ἔνθα δέ οἱ τέμενος βωμός τε θυήεις.

ἔνθα δέ μιν Χάριτες λοῦσαν καὶ χρῖσαν ἐλαίῳ

ἀμβρότῳ, οἷα θεοὺς ἐπενήνοθεν αἰὲν ἐόντας,365

ἀμφὶ δὲ εἵματα ἕσσαν ἐπήρατα, θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι.

ταῦτ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἀοιδὸς ἄειδε περικλυτός· αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς

τέρπετ᾽ ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ᾗσιν ἀκούων ἠδὲ καὶ ἄλλοι

Φαίηκες δολιχήρετμοι, ναυσίκλυτοι ἄνδρες.

Ἀλκίνοος δ᾽ Ἅλιον καὶ Λαοδάμαντα κέλευσεν370

μουνὰξ ὀρχήσασθαι, ἐπεί σφισιν οὔ τις ἔριζεν.

οἱ δ᾽ ἐπεὶ οὖν σφαῖραν καλὴν μετὰ χερσὶν ἕλοντο,

πορφυρέην, τήν σφιν Πόλυβος ποίησε δαΐφρων,

τὴν ἕτερος ῥίπτασκε ποτὶ νέφεα σκιόεντα

ἰδνωθεὶς ὀπίσω, ὁ δ᾽ ἀπὸ χθονὸς ὑψόσ᾽ ἀερθεὶς375

ῥηιδίως μεθέλεσκε, πάρος ποσὶν οὖδας ἱκέσθαι.

αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σφαίρῃ ἀν᾽ ἰθὺν πειρήσαντο,

ὠρχείσθην δὴ ἔπειτα ποτὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ

ταρφέ᾽ ἀμειβομένω· κοῦροι δ᾽ ἐπελήκεον ἄλλοι

ἑστεῶτες κατ᾽ ἀγῶνα, πολὺς δ᾽ ὑπὸ κόμπος ὀρώρει.380

δὴ τότ᾽ ἄρ᾽ Ἀλκίνοον προσεφώνεε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς·

"Ἀλκίνοε κρεῖον, πάντων ἀριδείκετε λαῶν,

ἠμὲν ἀπείλησας βητάρμονας εἶναι ἀρίστους,

ἠδ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἑτοῖμα τέτυκτο· σέβας μ᾽ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα."

    Demodocus finishes his song, which is followed by dancing.

    Not everyone is amused by the adulterers’ plight. Poseidon asks Hephaestus to release Ares, promising that the war god will pay the appropriate penalty to the gods for his transgression. Hephaestus refuses: What if Ares skips out without paying? How would Hephaestus levy the punishment then? Poseidon replies that he will pay if Ares does not.

    read full essay

    This offer Hephaestus cannot refuse, and once released, the lovers skulk away, Ares to Thrace, a suitably wild and warlike spot for him to recover his dignity, Aphrodite to Paphos, her shrine, where attendants bathe her and apply soothing ambrosial oil, then dress her in fresh clothing, returning her to her pristine beauty. We sense that for these two divine miscreants, the unpleasantness of their failed assignation will fade quickly.

    The light, anthropomorphic façade over the events remains, as we are encouraged to see the situation through the lens of human experience: omnipotent beings can have their feelings hurt and behave vindictively; there are apparently established procedures on Olympus for handling adultery, complete with fixed penalties; if Ares gets away clean, his irresponsible behavior will cause intractable inter-deity difficulties for Poseidon; and in a patriarchal system, only the plight of the male god need be addressed; his paramour—though a divine being with limitless powers herself—will be covered by whatever happens to him.

    Why does the poet choose Poseidon to object? One answer may be that someone has to get the lovers out of the trap, and Poseidon, as one of the Big Three deities who divide up the earth, sky, and underworld, has sufficient clout to convince Hephaestus. But Homer rarely does anything that does not serve his larger purposes in the poem. Hephaestus has been standing in for Odysseus in Demodocus’ song, the clever underdog who uses trickery to overcome an apparently stronger opponent. Meanwhile, Odysseus and Poseidon have some history that may have some bearing on the situation here. As we learned in Book 1 (19–20; 68–71), Poseidon holds a grudge against Odysseus for maiming his son, Polyphemus the cyclops (details to follow, 9.371–402) (see essay on Book 9.461–566). He may not kill his adversary, because Zeus has already decreed that he must tamp his anger down (1.77–79). Nevertheless, Poseidon takes what opportunities he can to make the return journey harder for Odysseus, smashing his raft after he leaves Ogygia (5.282–312) and punishing the Phaeacians for taking him home from Scheria (13.128–83). Following the pattern of surrogate players in the song, then, his well-founded animosity toward Odysseus makes Poseidon is the obvious choice to oppose Hephaestus.

    Though the song of Demodocus, an enclosed narrative with its own internal logic, seems to stand apart from the rest of the events on Scheria, the light tone of the narrative provides a vehicle for the poet’s foreshadowing of darker events to come in Ithaka. These qualities are consistent, as we have seen, with everything that happens during the hero’s visit to the Phaeacians. Starting on the beach with the charming exchange between Odysseus and Nausicaa and continuing through the stranger’s entrance into a closed society, almost all the events have a double significance. Odysseus’ careful approach to the young princess, flirtatious but not too aggressive, points forward to his delicate and crucial negotiations with Penelope, as does his interrogation by Arete. The athletic games provide a denatured version of the violence that awaits the hero in the Ithakan palace, the benign conclusion of the competitive friction between the king’s sons and the sailor standing in for the bloody slaughter of the suitors. Then the foreshadowing takes a different form, an amusing detour into the fantastic world of the Olympian gods, in which the life-and-death struggle of the returning hero is refracted through the comic lens of divine squabbling, where the dark threats of Hephaestus and social anxieties of Poseidon can have no permanent impact.

    After the song, Alkinous invites two men to perform what seems to be somewhere in between a game and a dance, involving patterned steps and a large red ball. The poet is careful to note that the king chooses only those two men, because σφισιν οὔ τις ἔριζεν, “no one could compete with them” (371). The song of Demodocus has eased the tension of the sailor’s exchange with the king’s sons by shifting the focus from potentially disastrous human conflict to divine comedy. Now we have a further modulation of tone, as the contentious, testosterone-laden athletic contests are folded into a carefully controlled set of movements with competition removed. It is as if the edgy chemistry of the games has been filtered through the necessarily light-hearted atmosphere of Olympus and can now be safely returned to the human world of Scheria.

    Conflict was necessary to the poet’s long term, paradigmatic goals for the episode, but now that element is subordinated to the overriding imperative to get the hero on his way to Ithaka, a project that has been on hold since the beginning of Book 8 (26–40). The Phaeacians would seem to be unlikely aggressive xenophobes, and it has taken considerable artistry by the poet to cast them in that role. As we move toward the end of Odysseus’s sojourn on Scheria, the pent-up energy behind the mystery of the stranger’s identity, which Homer has carefully tended, would seem to be coming to a boil. The poet has us just where he wants us.

     

    Further Reading

    Dimock, G. 1989. The Unity of the Odyssey, 101–103. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

     

    344  ἔχε … λίσσετο: unaugmented impf.

    345  ὅπως λύσειεν: “to release,” purpose clause with optative in secondary sequence.

    347  λῦσον: aor. imperat.

    347  αὐτὸν: “he himself,” i.e., Ares.

    347  ὑπίσχομαι: “I promise that (acc.) will (fut. infin.)” (Smyth 1868).

    348  αἴσιμος: “what is right,” “the appropriate penalty” (Cunliffe αἴσιμος 2).

    350  κέλευε: the verb can take two accusatives: the accusative of the person being ordered, and the accusative of the thing that person is ordered to do, usually a demonstrative pronoun such as ταῦτα (Smyth 1628).

    351  δειλαί: “(are) worthless,” predicate adjective after ἐγγύαι. Understand εἰσί.

    351  δειλῶν: “of worthless men,” subjective genitive, substantive, modifying ἐγγύαι.

    351  ἐγγυάασθαι: explanatory (epexegetical) infin., explaining δειλαί (Autenrieth, ἐγγυάομαι, glosses this entire line).

    352  πῶς ἂν ἐγώ σε δέοιμι: “how could I …?” a question in the apodosis of a future less vivid conditional.

    352  δέοιμι > δέω, "to bind."

    353  εἴ κεν Ἄρης οἴχοιτο: protasis of a future less vivid conditional.

    355  εἴ … κεν … / οἴχηται: protasis of a future more vivid conditional.

    358  οὐκ ἔστ᾽ οὐδὲ ἔοικε: “it is not possible nor appropriate.” For the non-enclitic form of ἔστι (“it is possible”), see LSJ εἰμί A.IV.

    359  μένος Ἡφαίστοιο: “the might of Hephaistos,” periphrasis (Smyth 3041).

    360  τὼ … λύθεν: dual; λύθεν: dual aor. pass. indic. > λύω.

    360  κρατεροῦ περ ἐόντος: modifying δεσμοῖο.

    361  ἀναΐξαντε: dual.

    361  : Ares.

    361  βεβήκει: “went,” unaugmented plupf. > βαίνω. The “pluperfect of immediate occurrence” (Smyth 1953).

    363  ἐς Πάφον: Paphos is a city on the island of Cyprus.

    363  οἱ: dative of possession, understand ἐστί.

    365  ἐπενήνοθεν: “covers,” “is laid upon” (Autenrieth ἐπενήνοθε).

    366  ἀμφὶ … ἕσσαν: “clothed (acc.) in (acc.),” tmesis, 3rd pl. aor. act. indic. > ἀμφιέννυμι. The verb takes a double accusative (Smyth 1628), but here the first accusative (her, Aphrodite) is omitted.

    368  ᾗσιν: “in his,” possessive adj.

    371  σφισιν: dative object of ἔριζεν.

    374  ποτὶ: = πρὸς

    374  ἕτερος … /… ὁ δ᾽: “one … / ... the other”

    375  ἰδνωθεὶς ὀπίσω: “leaning back.” According to Hesychius, the action described in lines 372–76 resembles a ball game called ούρανία (LSJ Οὐρανία IV).

    375  ὑψόσ᾽ ἀερθεὶς: “leaping up,” masc. nom. sing. aor. pass. ptc. > ἀείρω.

    376  μεθέλεσκε: iterative aor. > μεθαιρέω, (Smyth 1933).

    376  ποσὶν: "with his feet," i.e, before his feet touch the ground.

    377  ἀν᾽ ἰθὺν: “straight up” (LSJ ἰθύς B.1).

    378  ὠρχείσθην: dual aor. > ὀρχέομαι.

    379  ταρφέ᾽ ἀμειβομένω: “frequently exchanging.” Merry explains: “The ball was no longer only thrown up and caught, but the players began dancing, and as they danced, the ball flew from one to the other, all in time to the music.” 

    379: ταρφέα: “often,” neut. pl. > ταρφύς, adverbial. 

    380  ἑστεῶτες: masc. nom. pl. pf. act. ptc. > ἵστημι.

    380  κατ᾽ ἀγῶνα: “throughout the assembly.”

    380  ὑπὸ … ὀρώρει: tmesis, 3rd sing. plupf. act. indic. > ὑπόρνυμι.

    383  ἀπείλησας: 2nd sing. aor. act. indic. > ἀπειλέω (LSJ ἀπειλέω B.I). Introducing indirect discourse with accusative and infinitive, with a predicate accusative following the infinitive.

    384  ἑτοῖμα τέτυκτο: “made good (on your promise).”

    γέλως –ωτος ὁ: laughter

    ὄρνυμι ὄρσω ὦρσα ὄρωρα ὀρώρεμαι –––: to stir up, move; (mid.) to rise, get up

    ἀθάνατος –ον: immortal, deathless; (plur.) the gods

    Ποσειδῶν (or Ποσειδάων) –ῶνος ὁ: Poseidon

    γέλως –ωτος ὁ: laughter

    λίσσομαι ––– ἐλλισάμην/ἐλιτόμην ––– ––– –––: to pray, beg; to beseech with prayer

    Ἥφαιστος –ου ὁ: Hephaestus, god of fire 345

    κλυτοεργός –όν: famous for work

    Ἄρης –εως ὁ: Ares

    μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it; himself, herself, itself

    φωνέω φωνήσω ἐφώνησα πεφώνηκα πεφώνημαι ἐφωνήθην: make a sound, speak

    πτερόεις πτερόεσσα πτερόεν: winged

    προσαυδάω προσαυδήσω προσηύδησα προσηύδηκα προσηύδημαι προσηυδήθην: to speak to, address, accost

    ὑπισχνέομαι ὑποσχήσομαι ὑπεσχόμην ὑπέσχημαι: to take upon oneself, undertake, promise

    τίνω τείσω ἔτεισα/ἔτισα τέτεικα/τέτικα τέτεισμαι/τέτισμαι ἐτείσθην/ἐτίσθην: to value, treat with honor, respect; to pay, pay for, atone; (mid.) to make pay, punish, avenge oneself

    αἴσιμος [–η] –ον: fatal; (neut. plur.) what is just and right

    ἀθάνατος –ον: immortal, deathless; (plur.) the gods

    αὖτε: in turn, moreover, still, again, on the other hand

    προσεῖπον (aor. 2 of προσαγορεύω and προσφωνέω); Εp. προσέειπον: to speak to one, address, accost

    περικλυτός –ή –όν: heard of all round, famous, renowned, glorious

    Ἀμφιγυήεις –εντος: with both feet crooked, lame

    Ποσειδῶν (or Ποσειδάων) –ῶνος ὁ: Poseidon 350

    γαιήοχος –ον: that holds the earth (epithet of Poseidon)

    δειλός –ή –όν: wretched, unfortunate, miserable; base, cowardly, vile

    τοι: let me tell you, surely

    δειλός –ή –όν: wretched, unfortunate, miserable; base, cowardly, vile

    ἐγγύη –ης ἡ: a pledge put into the hand: surety, security

    ἐγγυάω ἐγγυήσω ἠγγύησα ἠγγύηκα ἐγγεγύημαι/ἠγγύημαι ἠγγυήθην: to give or hand over as a pledge, security

    ἀθάνατος –ον: immortal, deathless; (plur.) the gods

    Ἄρης –εως ὁ: Ares

    οἴχομαι οἰχήσομαι ––– ––– ––– –––: to go, come move; to be gone, to have gone

    χρέος –ους τό: consultation with a seer; obligation, debt

    δεσμός –οῦ ὁ (pl. δεσμά): a bond

    ἀλύσκω ἀλύξω ἤλυξα ––– ––– –––: to flee from, shun, avoid, forsake

    αὖτε: in turn, moreover, still, again, on the other hand

    προσεῖπον (aor. 2 of προσαγορεύω and προσφωνέω); Εp. προσέειπον: to speak to one, address, accost

    Ποσειδῶν (or Ποσειδάων) –ῶνος ὁ: Poseidon

    ἐνοσίχθων –ονος ὁ: earth-shaker (epithet of Poseidon)

    Ἥφαιστος –ου ὁ: Hephaestus, god of fire 355

    Ἄρης –εως ὁ: Ares

    χρέος –ους τό: consultation with a seer; obligation, debt

    ὑπαλύσκω ὑπαλύξω ὑπάλυξα: to avoid, shun, flee from, escape

    οἴχομαι οἰχήσομαι ––– ––– ––– –––: to go, come move; to be gone, to have gone

    τίνω τείσω ἔτεισα/ἔτισα τέτεικα/τέτικα τέτεισμαι/τέτισμαι ἐτείσθην/ἐτίσθην: to value, treat with honor, respect; to pay, pay for, atone; (mid.) to make pay, punish, avenge oneself

    ἀμείβω ἀμείψω ἤμειψα ἤμειφα ἤμειμμαι ἠμείφθην: to respond, answer; to exchange; (mid.) to take turns, alternate; to change, place, pass

    περικλυτός –ή –όν: heard of all round, famous, renowned, glorious

    Ἀμφιγυήεις –εντος: with both feet crooked, lame

    τεός –ή –όν: = σός, 'your'

    ἀρνέομαι ἀρνήσομαι ἠρνησάμην ἤρνημαι ἠρνήθην: to deny, disown, refuse

    δεσμός –οῦ ὁ (pl. δεσμά): a bond

    ἀνίημι ἀνήσω ἀνῆκα ἀνεῖκα ἀνεῖμαι ἀνείθην: to send up; let go, abate

    μένος –ους τό: might

    Ἥφαιστος –ου ὁ: Hephaestus, god of fire 

    δεσμός –οῦ ὁ (pl. δεσμά): a bond 360

    κρατερός –ά –όν: strong, powerful, mighty

    ἀναΐσσω/ἀνᾴσσω/ἀνᾴττω ἀνᾴξω ἀνῇξα: to start up, rise quickly

    Θρῄκηνδε: to Thrace

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    Κύπρος –ου ἡ: Cyprus

    ἱκάνω ––– ––– ––– ––– –––: to come to, arrive at, reach

    φιλομμειδής –ές: laughter-loving

    Ἀφροδίτη –ης ἡ: Aphrodite

    Πάφος –ου ἡ: Paphos, a city in Cyprus

    οὗ, οἷ, ἕ and encl. οὑ, οἱ, ἑ: him, her, it; himself, herself, itself

    τέμενος –ους τό: sacred precinct

    βωμός –οῦ ὁ: alter pedestal

    θυήεις –εσσα –ες: smoking

    μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it; himself, herself, itself

    Χάρις –ιτος ἡ: Charis, Grace

    λούω λούσομαι ἔλουσα λέλουμαι: to wash; (mid.) to wash myself, bathe

    χρίω χρίσω ἔχρισα κέχρικα κέχριμαι ἐχρίσθην: to rub, anoint

    ἔλαιον –ου τό: olive-oil

    ἄμβροτος –ον: immortal, divine 365

    οἷος –α –ον: (such a kind) as; for οἷός τε see οἷος III.2

    ἐνήνοθα (defective perf. w. pres. signif.): swell there, steam there, rise there

    εἷμα –ατος τό: clothing

    ἕννυμι ἕσσω ἕσσα: clothe, put on clothing

    ἐπήρατος –ον: lovely, charming

    θαῦμα –ατος τό: wonder

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    ἀοιδός –οῦ ὁ: a singer, minstrel, bard

    ᾄσομαι ᾖσα ᾖσμαι ᾔσθην: sing

    περικλυτός –ή –όν: heard of all round, famous, renowned, glorious

    ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet, consequently

    Ὀδυσσεύς –έως ὁ: Odysseus, king of Ithaca, hero of the Odyssey

    τέρπω τέρψω ἔτερψα ––– ––– ἐτάρφθην/ἐτέρφθην: to delight; (mid./pass.) to have one's full of

    φρήν φρενός ἡ: diaphragm; heart, mind, wits

    ἑός ἑή ἑόν: his, her, own

    ἠδέ: and

    Φαίαξ –ακος ὁ: a Phaeacian

    δολιχήρετμος –ον: long-oared

    ναυσικλυτός –όν: famed for ships, famous by sea

    Ἀλκίνοος –ου ὁν: Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians in Scheria, a grandson of Poseidon 370

    Ἅλιος –ου ὁ: Halius, a Lycian, or, a son of Alcinous

    λαοδάμας –αντος: man-taming

    μουνάξ: singly, in single combat

    ὀρχέομαι ὀρχήσομαι ὠρχησαμην ––– ––– –––: to dance in a row

    σφεῖς: they

    ἐρίζω ἐρίσω ἤρισα ἤρικα ἐρήρισμαι: to strive, wrangle, quarrel

    σφαῖρα –ας ἡ: a ball, playing-ball

    πορφύρεος –η –ον: agitated; dyed purple

    σφεῖς: they

    Πόλυβος –ου ὁ: Polybus, a son of Antēnor; an Egyptian; an Ithacan, the father of Eurymachus; a suitor of Penelope; or, a Phaeacian

    δαίφρων –ον: fiery-hearted, warlike

    ῥίπτω ῥίζψω ἔρριψα ἔρριμμαι ἐρρίφθην: to throw, cast, hurl

    νέφος –ους τό: a cloud

    σκιόεις –εσσα –εν: shady, shadowy

    ἰδνόομαι ἰδνώσομαι ἰδνώθην: to bend oneself, double oneself up, shrink up 375

    ὀπίσω or ὀπίσσω: backwards, behind; in the future

    χθών χθονός ἡ: the earth, ground

    ὑψόσε: aloft, on high, up high

    ἀείρω ἀρῶ ἤειρα ––– ἤερμαι ἠέρθην: to lift, heave, raise up

    μεθαιρέω μεθαιρήσω μεθεῖλον μεθῄρηκα: to catch in turn

    πάρος: before, formerly

    οὖδας –ους τό: the surface of the earth, the ground, earth

    ἱκνέομαι ἵξομαι ἱκόμην ––– ἷγμαι –––: to come, reach

    ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet, consequently

    σφαῖρα –ας ἡ: a ball, playing-ball

    ἰθύς ἰθεῖα ἰθύ: straight, direct

    ὀρχέομαι ὀρχήσομαι ὠρχησαμην ––– ––– –––: to dance in a row

    χθών χθονός ἡ: the earth, ground

    πολυβότειρα –ας ἡ: much- or all-nourishing

    ταρφύς –εῖα –ύ: thick, close

    ἀμείβω ἀμείψω ἤμειψα ἤμειφα ἤμειμμαι ἠμείφθην: to respond, answer; to exchange; (mid.) to take turns, alternate; to change, place, pass

    κόρος –ου ὁ: one's fill, satiety, surfeit

    ἐπιληκέω – – – – –: to beat time to

    κόμπος –ου ὁ: a noise, din, clash 380

    ὄρνυμι ὄρσω ὦρσα ὄρωρα ὀρώρεμαι –––: to stir up, move; (mid.) to rise, get up

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    Ἀλκίνοος –ου ὁ: Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians in Scheria, a grandson of Poseidon

    προσφωνέω προσφωνήσω προσεφώνησα ––– ––– –––: to call

    δῖος –α –ον: divine, godlike, shining

    Ὀδυσσεύς –έως ὁ: Odysseus, king of Ithaca, hero of the Odyssey

    Ἀλκίνοος –ου ὁ: Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians in Scheria, a grandson of Poseidon

    κρείων fem. -ουσα: commanding, kingly; (as subst.) ruler

    ἀριδείκετος –ον: conspicuous, renowned; notable, illustrious, famous

    ἠμέν: both.. (and), as well.. (as)

    ἀπειλέω ἀπειλήσω ἀπείλησα ––– ἀπείλημαι ἀπειλήθην: to promise

    βητάρμων –ονος ὁ: a dancer

    ἠδέ: and

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    ἑτοῖμος –η –ον: at hand, ready, prepared

    τεύχω τεύξω ἔτευξα τέτευχα τέτυγμαι ἐτύχθην: to make, build, prepare, fasten; to bring about; (pass.) to be brought about, to be 

    σέβας τό: reverential awe, a feeling of awe

    εἰσοράω εἰσόψομαι εἰσεῖδον εἰσεόρακα/εἰσεώρακα/εἰσόπωπα εἰσεόραμαι/εἰσεώραμαι/εἰσῶμμαι εἰσώφθην: to look into, look upon, view, behold

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    Suggested Citation

    Thomas Van Nortwick and Rob Hardy, Homer: Odyssey 5–12. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-947822-17-7 https://dcc.dickinson.edu/homer-odyssey/viii-343-384