"δὴ τότε τοὺς ἄλλους κελόμην ἐρίηρας ἑταίρους

αὐτοῦ πὰρ νηί τε μένειν καὶ νῆα ἔρυσθαι,

αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ κρίνας ἑτάρων δυοκαίδεκ᾽ ἀρίστους195

βῆν· ἀτὰρ αἴγεον ἀσκὸν ἔχον μέλανος οἴνοιο

ἡδέος, ὅν μοι ἔδωκε Μάρων, Εὐάνθεος υἱός,

ἱρεὺς Ἀπόλλωνος, ὃς Ἴσμαρον ἀμφιβεβήκει,

οὕνεκά μιν σὺν παιδὶ περισχόμεθ᾽ ἠδὲ γυναικὶ

ἁζόμενοι· ᾤκει γὰρ ἐν ἄλσεϊ δενδρήεντι200

Φοίβου Ἀπόλλωνος. ὁ δέ μοι πόρεν ἀγλαὰ δῶρα·

χρυσοῦ μέν μοι ἔδωκ᾽ ἐυεργέος ἑπτὰ τάλαντα,

δῶκε δέ μοι κρητῆρα πανάργυρον, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα

οἶνον ἐν ἀμφιφορεῦσι δυώδεκα πᾶσιν ἀφύσσας

ἡδὺν ἀκηράσιον, θεῖον ποτόν· οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν205

ἠείδη δμώων οὐδ᾽ ἀμφιπόλων ἐνὶ οἴκῳ,

ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸς ἄλοχός τε φίλη ταμίη τε μί᾽ οἴη.

τὸν δ᾽ ὅτε πίνοιεν μελιηδέα οἶνον ἐρυθρόν,

ἓν δέπας ἐμπλήσας ὕδατος ἀνὰ εἴκοσι μέτρα

χεῦ᾽, ὀδμὴ δ᾽ ἡδεῖα ἀπὸ κρητῆρος ὀδώδει210

θεσπεσίη· τότ᾽ ἂν οὔ τοι ἀποσχέσθαι φίλον ἦεν.

τοῦ φέρον ἐμπλήσας ἀσκὸν μέγαν, ἐν δὲ καὶ ᾖα

κωρύκῳ· αὐτίκα γάρ μοι ὀίσατο θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ

ἄνδρ᾽ ἐπελεύσεσθαι μεγάλην ἐπιειμένον ἀλκήν,

ἄγριον, οὔτε δίκας ἐὺ εἰδότα οὔτε θέμιστας.215

καρπαλίμως δ᾽ εἰς ἄντρον ἀφικόμεθ᾽, οὐδέ μιν ἔνδον

εὕρομεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνόμευε νομὸν κάτα πίονα μῆλα.

ἐλθόντες δ᾽ εἰς ἄντρον ἐθηεύμεσθα ἕκαστα.

ταρσοὶ μὲν τυρῶν βρῖθον, στείνοντο δὲ σηκοὶ

ἀρνῶν ἠδ᾽ ἐρίφων· διακεκριμέναι δὲ ἕκασται220

ἔρχατο, χωρὶς μὲν πρόγονοι, χωρὶς δὲ μέτασσαι,

χωρὶς δ᾽ αὖθ᾽ ἕρσαι. ναῖον δ᾽ ὀρῷ ἄγγεα πάντα,

γαυλοί τε σκαφίδες τε, τετυγμένα, τοῖς ἐνάμελγεν.

ἔνθ᾽ ἐμὲ μὲν πρώτισθ᾽ ἕταροι λίσσοντ᾽ ἐπέεσσιν

τυρῶν αἰνυμένους ἰέναι πάλιν, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα225

καρπαλίμως ἐπὶ νῆα θοὴν ἐρίφους τε καὶ ἄρνας

σηκῶν ἐξελάσαντας ἐπιπλεῖν ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ·

ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ οὐ πιθόμην, ἦ τ᾽ ἂν πολὺ κέρδιον ἦεν,

ὄφρ᾽ αὐτόν τε ἴδοιμι, καὶ εἴ μοι ξείνια δοίη.

οὐδ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔμελλ᾽ ἑτάροισι φανεὶς ἐρατεινὸς ἔσεσθαι.230

    Mooring the ship, Odysseus goes with twelve men to the Cyclops’ cave, which is described.

    Odysseus yields to his curiosity and chooses twelve men to go with him to the Cyclops’s island. Before setting off, he makes sure to pack one crucial item, a goatskin sack of dark, sweet wine, a gift from Maron, a priest of Apollo. This is no ordinary vintage and is available only to the priest and his wife. The fragrance seems to preoccupy Odysseus. 

    Read full essay

    It is ἡδύς, “sweet,” (197, 205), θεῖος, “divine,” (205), μελιηδής, “honey-sweet” (208). When poured, its effects are powerful (210–211)

    Like the savor of burning cedar and sweetwood in Calypso’s cave, the wine engages the senses, its fragrance floating around; like the seductive voices of Calypso, Circe, and the Sirens, it beckons those who approach, drawing them toward danger. As we have noted, the combination of fragrance, ambrosia, and shiny things is often associated with trickery in the Odyssey. Later, as he drinks and falls victim to Odysseus’s trickery, Polyphemus himself will compare the wine to nectar and ambrosia (9.359). Odysseus has had a premonition that they will meet a wild, strong man, ignorant of laws and good customs. Now he has a weapon.

    Odysseus and his chosen companions arrive at the cave to find it unoccupied for the moment. The Cyclops, it seems, is out in the pasture, tending to his flocks. They enter the monster’s home and gaze in wonder at the tidy scene within, baskets filled with cheese, pails overflowing with milk and whey, pens crowded with lambs and kids, carefully segregated according to age. We encounter again the abiding paradox of the Cyclops episode: the loutish, dangerous creature is also a methodical, attentive shepherd. The interplay of civilized and savage behavior, not confined to Polyphemus only, will run through the entire episode, part of the poem’s anthropological meditation on the complexities of human experience.

    The crew begs him to plunder the Cyclops’s stores and then sail away to safety. In retrospect, this would have been better, he admits (9.228–230).

    The centrifugal version of Odysseus, hungry for knowledge and experience, even at the risk of endangering himself and others, emerges here for the first time in the hero’s recounting of his adventures. In the poem’s opening verses, Homer explicitly links his hero’s desire for knowledge and the suffering he endured (1.3–4). There, the pain is said to be in the service of saving himself and his crew. But here and elsewhere, as we will see, that goal gives way to Odysseus’s restless curiosity. His rueful admission here comes, let us remember, after he has lost all of his crew. Of course, not all of the losses can be blamed on Odysseus. Their lack of self-control got his companions into trouble with the Cicones and will lead them to ignore his warnings about the bag of winds from Aeolus and the cattle of the sun. But some of the dangers they encounter might have been avoided, had they not been sacrificed to their captain’s need to “know the cities and minds of many” (1.3).

    These two urges in Odysseus, to reach home and to seek new knowledge, are not always in conflict. Finding out as much as he can about the people and places he visits on his journey, while hiding his own identity, gives him leverage as he makes his way toward Ithaka. Knowledge is, in this sense, power in the poem. Yet we cannot help but feel that the alter ego Odysseus creates for himself in the false tales he spins for Athena, Eumaeus, Telemachus, and Penelope, wandering the Mediterranean in search of adventure and riches, reflects something inside him that peeks out at moments like this. And the uneasiness many, including later storytellers, have felt about the end of the poem can be attributed at least in part to the feeling that the dutiful king, husband, father, and son who finally triumphs will not be content with staying home. Likewise, the tension between these impulses in the hero finds its analog in the larger structure of the poem in the coexistence of two different worlds: the Ithaka of Athena’s return story, where the centripetal hero can reestablish his kingship with all its attendant hierarchies, and the world through which the anonymous stranger passes, teeming with possibilities, wide open to all the vagaries of ordinary human experience.

    Odysseus insists on waiting in order to see Polyphemus, but also to find out if he will offer them ξείνια, “guest gifts.” We know at this point in the poem that the issue is not simply one of manners. How strangers behave when they arrive in a new place and how they are treated are important measures of moral worth in the Odyssey. Despite a wobbly start, Alcinous proves to be an excellent host for Odysseus, as do Nestor and Menelaus for Telemachus. Even the gods observe the niceties, as we see when Hermes arrives unannounced at the cave of Calypso (5.8797). We may feel that these matters are somewhat trivial amid dangerous encounters with monsters, but the background of the Odyssey is the 9th century BCE in the Mediterranean, a time of considerable unrest, with wandering people uprooted from their homes. When night fell, there would be no anonymous hotel in which weary travelers could find rest. How one is treated by strangers could be a matter of life and death.

    Is, then, the creature going to be a proper, civilized host, or a dangerous savage? So far, as we have seen, the signals have been mixed. Behind the episode lies a potent mythical paradigm. The figure of the “culture hero,” who battles against a chaos monster and by conquering it preserves civilization, is ubiquitous in stories across the Mediterranean, appearing as early as The Epic of Gilgamesh in the 2nd millennium BCE: Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat Humbaba, monster of the Cedar Forest; Apollo slays Pytho, a giant serpent, the rotting body of which marks the site of the god’s oracle at Delphi; Zeus conquers Typhon, a Storm God, and secures the rule of the Olympian gods. The story pattern appears in the Iliad, but in a more complex form, befitting an ambiguous hero. Achilles, cutting a gory path toward Hector, throws so many dead bodies into the river Scamander that its flow is blocked by corpses and the river’s god protests. Achilles dismisses the complaint, prompting the god to make the river overflow its banks and threaten to drown the hero. Hephaestus, prompted by Hera, starts a back-fire and drives the river back into its channel (Il. 21.209–382). Achilles begins as the chaos monster, clogging the flow of nature, then, with the help of the gods, becomes the agent for restoring order.

    The echoes of this story pattern are more muted in the Cyclops episode, but no less central to its ironies. Odysseus seems at first a fitting candidate for the culture hero, facing the one-eyed creature, who eats his guests instead of feeding them, as a good host should do. But as the episode unfolds, we will see that the poet blurs the outlines of the story’s logic. Polyphemus, as we have seen, is a rather tidy monster in his own way, and Odysseus will prove to be a dangerous guest.

     

    Further Reading

    Dimock, G. 1989. The Unity of the Odyssey, 117–118. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

    Finley, M. 1978. The World of Odysseus. London: Harmondsworth.

    Nagler, M. 1974. Spontaneity and Tradition: The Oral Art of Homer,147–162. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Pedrick, V. 1988. “The Hospitality of Noble Women in the Odyssey.” Helios 15: 85–104.

    Peradotto, J. 1990. The Man in the Middle: Name and Narration in Homer’s Odyssey, 53–58. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Reinhardt, K. 1942. “The Adventures in the Odyssey.” In Schein, S. 1996. Reading the Odyssey. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 79–83.

    Thalmann, W. 1992. The Odyssey: An Epic of Return, 36; 74–76. New York: Twayne Publishers.

    Van Nortwick, T. 2008. The Unknown Odysseus: Alternate Worlds in Homer’s Odyssey, 30–35. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

     

    194  ἔρυσθαι: “to draw up on shore”

    195  κρίνας: “choosing,” aor. ptc. > κρίνω.

    198  ὃς ... ἀμφιβεβήκει: “who used to watch over,” “protected.” Apollo used to watch over Ismaros, until Odysseus and his men sacked it, killing the men and enslaving their wives (9.39–41). In the raid they spared Maron, the priest of Apollo, and his family.

    198  ἀμφιβεβήκει: plupf. > ἀμφιβαίνω, treated as an imperfect in Homer.

    199  περισχόμεθ(α): “we protected”

    200  ἁζόμενοι: “out of reverence”

    201  πόρεν: = ἔπορε, aor. > *πόρω, “he provided”

    204  δυώδεκα πᾶσιν: “twelve, all told,” or “twelve in all”

    205  αὐτὸν: refers to the wine

    206  ἠείδη: “knew about” = ᾔδη > οἶδα

    208  τὸν: the article, with μελιηδέα οἶνον ἐρυθρόν.

    208  ὅτε πίνοιεν: “whenever they drank,” past general conditional (or indefinite) relative clause, with optative in secondary sequence.

    209  ὕδατος: gen., after μέτρα.

    209  ἀνὰ … χεῦ’: “He poured it (the cup of wine) into twenty measures…”

    209 χεῦε: aor., where an imperfect is expected.

    210  ὀδμὴ: = ὀσμή, “scent.”

    210  ὀδώδει: > ὄζω, plupf. with impf. sense, “was fragrant”

    211  ἂν … ἦεν: “[on those occasions,] it would be…” or “it was…” An action that is usual or customary can be expressed with the imperfect and ἄν (Smyth 1894, “iterative Imperfect”).

    211  φίλον: “pleasing (to),” with a complementary infinitive

    212  τοῦ … ἀσκὸν μέγαν: “a large wineskin of this” (i.e., the wine). τοῦ is demonstrative.

    212  φέρον: = ἔφερον.

    212  ἐν: with κωρύκῳ.

    212  ᾖα: “provisions” acc. pl. > ἤια -ατος, τό; object of φέρον.

    213  ὀΐσατο: aor. > οἴομαι or ὀΐομαι, + future infinitive

    213-214  ὀΐσατο / ἄνδρ(α) ἐπελεύσεσθαι: “suspected that (I) might encounter a man.” 

    214  ἐπελεύσεσθαι: fut. infin. > ἐπέρχομαι.

    214  μεγάλην ἐπιειμένον ἀλκήν: “clothed in great courage,” i.e. warlike and potentially hostile. For the accusative (μεγάλην ἀλκήν) after a passive participle (ἐπιειμένον > ἐπιέννυμι), see Smyth 1628 and 1632.

    217  νομὸν κάτα: = κατὰ νομόν, anaphora. In looking up νομός, notice the accent, which differentiates it from νόμος.

    218  ἐθηεύμεσθα: = Att. ἐθεώμεθα > θεάομαι.

    219  βρῖθον: = Att. ἔβριθον, impf.

    219  στείνοντο: “were crowded with” + gen. (Smyth 1369, genitive with verbs signifying “to fill, to be full of”)

    220  διακεκριμέναι:  pf. mid. ptc. > διακρίνω.

    220-221  διακεκριμέναι δὲ ἕκασται / ἔρχατο: "and each kind was penned separately." 

    220. διακεκριμέναι: pf. mid. ptc. > διακρίνω.

    221  ἔρχατο: 3rd pl. plupf. > ἔργω.

    222  ναῖον: “were overflowing,” = Att. ἔναιον, impf.

    222  ὀρῷ: > ὀρός. Note the smooth breathing and accent when looking up this noun.

    223  τοῖς: the article is used as a relative pronoun (Monro 262). The antecedents are the vessels mentioned in the first half of the line. Instrumental dative.

    223  τετυγμένα: “well-made.”

    223  ἐνάμελγεν: unaugmented aor.; the subject is the Cyclops.

    225  τυρῶν αἰνυμένους: in indirect discourse, following λίσσοντ(ο), understand ἡμᾶς as the accusative (“…that we, taking some of the cheese, ...”). 

    225  τυρῶν: partitive gen. (“some of the cheese”)

    225  ἰέναι πάλιν, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα: "go back, and then...," looking forward to ἐπιπλεῖν in line 227. The infinitives are part of the accusative and infinitive construction of indirect discourse introduced by λίσσοντ(ο). 

    227  σηκῶν ἐξελάσαντας: understand ἐκ with the genitive, as implied by ἐξελάσαντας ( > ἐξελαύνω). As in line 225, understand ἡμᾶς with the participle.

    228  ἦ … ἦεν: parenthetical. The apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional with the protasis implied.

    229  αὐτόν: the Cyclops.

    229  καὶ εἴ … δοίη: “and if he would give….” It’s easiest to take this as an indirect question introduced by ἴδοιμι: “So that I might see him, and (see) if he would give….”

    229  ξείνια: supply δῶρα, “gifts of hospitality”

    230  οὐδ(έ) ... ἐρατεινὸς:  "not ... lovely," i.e. "very unpleasant"—an understatement.

    230  ἔμελλ(ε): the subject is the Cyclops.

    230  φανεὶς: “when he appeared,” temporal participle.

    κέλομαι κελήσομαι ἐκελησάμην ἐκεκλόμην: to command, urge on, exhort, call to

    ἐρίηρος –ον: faithful, devoted

    ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion

    αὐτοῦ: at the very place, here, there

    εἰρύω/ἐρύω ἐρύσω/ἐρύω εἴρυσα/ἔρυσα/ἔρυσσα εἴρυσα/ἔρυσα/ἔρυσσα –– –– εἰρύσθην: to pull, draw, drag

    ἀτάρ: but, yet

    ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion

    δυοκαίδεκα: twelve 195

    ἀτάρ: but, yet

    αἴγεος –α –ον: of goat skin

    ἀσκός –οῦ ὁ: a wine-skin; leather purse

    μέλας μέλαινα μέλαν: black, dark; obscure

    οἶνος –ου ὁ: wine

    Μάρων –ωνος ὁ: son of Euanthes, priest of Apollo in Ismarus

    Εὐάνθης –ους ὁ: Euanthes, the father of Maron

    ἱερεύς –έως ὁ: priest, sacrificer of victims

    Ἀπόλλων –ωνος ὁ: Apollo

    Ἴσμαρος –ου ὁ: Ismarus, a city of the Ciconians

    ἀμφιβαίνω ἀμφιβήσομαι ἀμφέβην ἀμφιβέβηκα: to surround, go or stand over; to protect

    οὕνεκα: on account of which, wherefore

    μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it

    περιέχω/περιίσχω περιέξω/περισχήσω περιέσχον περιέσχηκα περιέσχημαι περιεσχέθην: (mid.) to surround, protect

    ἠδέ: and

    ἅζομαι ––– ––– ––– ––– –––: to respect, venerate, fear

    ἄλσος –ους τό: a glade

    δενδρήεις –εσσα –εν: woody 200

    Φοῖβος –ου ὁ: Phoebus, epithet of Apollo, probably as god of light

    πόρω ––– ἔπορον ––– ––– –––: to offer, furnish, supply, give; (pf. pass. 3 sing.) it is fated

    ἀγλαός –ή –όν: splendid, shining, bright

    δῶρον –ου τό: gift

    χρυσός –οῦ ὁ: gold

    εὐεργής –ές: well-wrought, well-made

    τάλαντον –ου τό: a talent, a large sum of gold

    κρητήρ –ῆρος ὁ: large vessel for mixing water and wine

    πανάργυρος –ον: all-silver

    ἀτάρ: but, yet

    οἶνος –ου ὁ: wine

    ἀμφιφορεύς –έως ὁ: a large jar with two handles

    δυώδεκα or δώδεκα: twelve

    ἀφύσσω ἀφύξω ἤφυσα: to draw (liquid from a vessel)

    ἀκηράσιος –ον: unmixed

    ποτόν -ου τό: a drink, esp. wine 205

    δμώς –ωός ὁ: an enslaved person, especially one taken in war

    ἀμφίπολος –ου ἡ: female attendant, handmaid

    ἄλοχος –ου ἡ: wife

    ταμία –ας ἡ: a housekeeper, housewife

    οἶος –α –ον: alone

    μελιηδής –ές: honey-sweet

    οἶνος –ου ὁ: wine

    ἐρυθρός –ά –όν: red

    δέπας –αος τό: drinking cup, beaker

    ἐμπίμπλημι ἐμπλήσω ἐνέπλησα ἐμπέπληκα ἐμπέπλησμαι ἐωεπλήθην: to fill

    μέτρον –ου τό: a measure, proportion; rule

    χέω χέω ἔχεα or ἔχευα κέχυκα κέχυμαι ἐχύθην: to pour 210

    ὀσμή –ῆς ἡ: a smell, scent, odor

    κρητήρ –ῆρος ὁ: large vessel for mixing water and wine

    ὄζω ὀζέσω/ὀζήσω ὤζεσα/ὤζησα ὤζηκα/ὄδωδα: to emit an odor (good or bad), be fragrant 

    θεσπέσιος [–α] –ον: divine; prodigious, extraordinary, supernatural

    τοι: let me tell you, surely

    ἀπέχω ἀφέξω (or ἀποσχήσω) ἀπέσχον ἀπέσχηκα ––– –––: to keep apart; (mid.) to restrain oneself, abstain

    ἐμπίμπλημι ἐμπλήσω ἐνέπλησα ἐμπέπληκα ἐμπέπλησμαι ἐωεπλήθην: fill

    ἀσκός –οῦ ὁ: a wine-skin; leather purse

    ἤια –ατος τό: provisions for a journey

    κώρυκος –ου ὁ: a leather sack

    ἀγήνωρ –ορος: manly, courageous, heroic

    ἐπέρχομαι ἔπειμι ἐπῆλθον ἐπελήλυθα ––– –––: to approach, arrive; to encounter, come up against, attack

    ἐπιέννυμι ἐπιέσσω ἐπίεσσα: to put on, wear

    ἀλκή –ής ἡ: strength, courage

    ἄγριος –α –ον: savage; wild; fierce

    θέμις –ιστος ἡ: norm, custom; right, law 215

    καρπάλιμος –ον: swift

    ἄντρον –ου τό: a cave, cavern

    μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it

    ἐνδογενής –ές: within, at home

    νομεύω νομεύσω ἐνόμευσα: to put to graze, drive afield

    νομός –ου ὁ: place assigned for grazing, pasture

    πίων –ονος ὁ/ἡ: fat, plump; rich, opulent

    μῆλον –ου τό: sheep or goat

    ἄντρον –ου τό: a cave, cavern

    θεάομαι θεάσομαι ἐθεσάμην ––– τεθέαμαι ἐθεσαμήθην: to look on, behold, view

    ταρσός –οῦ ὁ: a wickerwork basket, frame, mat

    τυρός –οῦ ὁ: cheese

    βρίθω βρίσω ἔβρισα βέβριθα ––– –––: to be heavy

    στείνω – – – – –: to contract; (mid.-pass.) to be crammed full of (+ gen.)

    σηκός –οῦ ὁ: a pen, fold

    ἀρήν ἀρνός ὁ: lamb 220

    ἠδέ: and

    ἔριφος –ου ὁ: a young goat, kid

    διακρίνω διακρινῶ διέκρινα διακέκρικα διακέκριμαι διεκρίθην: to separate, distinguish, sort

    ἔργνυμι/εἴργω εἴρξω/εἵρξω εἶρξα/εἷρξα ––– εἶργμαι/εἷργμαι εἴρχθην/εἵρχθην: to confine

    πρόγονος –ου ὁ: (lamb) born before, more ancient

    μέτασσαι -ῶν αἱ: (lambs) born after, nearing maturity

    αὖτε: again

    ἕρση –ης ἡ: dew; whelp, youngster

    νάω or ναίω: to flow; to overflow with (+ dat.)

    ὀρός –οῦ ὁ: whey, the watery or serous part of milk

    ἄγγος –ους τό: a vessel

    γαυλός –οῦ ὁ: a milk-pail

    σκαφίς –ίδος ἡ: bowl

    τεύχω τεύξω ἔτευξα τέτευχα τέτυγμαι ἐτύχθην: to do, make, build; to cause

    ἐναμέλγω ἐναμέλξω ἐνήμελξα: to milk into

    πρώτιστος [–η] –ον: the very first, first of the first

    ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion

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

    τυρός –οῦ ὁ: cheese

    αἴνυμαι – – – – –: to take, take off, take hold of 225

    ἀτάρ: but, yet

    καρπάλιμος –ον: swift

    θοός –ή –όν: swift

    ἔριφος –ου ὁ: a young goat, kid

    ἀρήν ἀρνός ὁ: lamb

    σηκός –οῦ ὁ: a pen, fold

    ἐξελαύνω ἐξελῶ ἐξήλασα ἐξελήλακα ἐξελήλαμαι ἐξηλάθην: to drive out, lead away

    ἐπιπλέω ἐπιπλευσοῦμαι/ἐπιπλεύσομαι ἐπέπλευσα ἐπιπέπλευκα: to sail through (+ acc.)

    ἁλμυρός –ά –όν: salt, briny

    κερδίων –ον: more profitable

    ὄφρα: while; until; so that; ὄφρα … τόφρα, while … for so long

    ξείνιον -ου τό: hospitality gift

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion

    ἐρατεινός –ή –όν: lovely, charming 230

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    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/ix-193-230