Odyssey 1.144 · Book 1, lines 144–148
The suitors come in
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ἐς δʼ ἦλθον μνηστῆρες ἀγήνορες. οἱ μὲν ἔπειτα ἑξείης ἕζοντο κατὰ κλισμούς τε θρόνους τε, τοῖσι δὲ κήρυκες μὲν ὕδωρ ἐπὶ χεῖρας ἔχευαν, σῖτον δὲ δμῳαὶ παρενήνεον ἐν κανέοισιν, κοῦροι δὲ κρητῆρας ἐπεστέψαντο ποτοῖο.
In came the lordly suitors. They then took their seats in rows, along the couches and the chairs; and heralds poured water over their hands, and maids heaped bread in baskets, and young men filled the mixing-bowls to the brim with drink.
Word by word
The setting
The disguised guest is settled and fed. Now the men courting Penelope arrive for their daily feast — and the household runs the same welcome-service for them, in bulk.
A note on this passage
The suitors file in and the whole service runs again — seats taken in order, water for the hands, bread heaped in baskets, mixing-bowls filled. The lines nearly repeat the welcome just given to the guest; the household performs the same ceremony for the crowd.
The repetition is the point. What was honor done to one stranger is now routine catering for a mob, every day, the same courteous machine turning for men who are owed nothing. Even the epithet leans against them: ἀγήνορες, 'lordly,' 'manly' — a word of praise laid on the takers. Homer lets the evenness of the form do the judging: the ritual cannot tell a guest from a parasite, and the poem counts on us to feel the difference the ritual cannot.
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