Odyssey 1.119 · Book 1, lines 119–122
Ashamed to leave a guest standing
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βῆ δʼ ἰθὺς προθύροιο, νεμεσσήθη δʼ ἐνὶ θυμῷ ξεῖνον δηθὰ θύρῃσιν ἐφεστάμεν· ἐγγύθι δὲ στὰς χεῖρʼ ἕλε δεξιτερὴν καὶ ἐδέξατο χάλκεον ἔγχος, καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·
He went straight to the doorway, ashamed in his heart that a stranger should stand so long at the doors; and stepping up close he took her right hand and received the bronze spear, and raising his voice he addressed her with winged words:
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus sees the stranger waiting at the door and reacts exactly as the code demands: shame that a guest has stood unattended, then the formal gestures of welcome — the right hand, the relieving of the spear.
A note on this passage
The boy's response is instant and physical: straight to the porch, stung in his heart — νεμεσσήθη, the shame-anger a decent man feels at a breach of what is right — that a stranger has been left standing at the door. Then the protocol: clasp the right hand, take the guest's spear, speak. Relieving the guest of the spear is courtesy with meaning in it — a guest disarmed is a guest trusted, inside the peace of the house.
The scene is a graded exam, and he does not know he is sitting it. Xenia works precisely because the stranger's identity is unknown — any figure at the door might be a god, so the code says honor first, questions later. The suitors, natives of this hall, never noticed her. The grieving boy passes in four lines, and Athena's whole Ithacan plan — built on this young man — is confirmed at the threshold before a word is spoken.
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