Odyssey 1.149 · Book 1, lines 149–152
When desire for food was gone
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οἱ δʼ ἐπʼ ὀνείαθʼ ἑτοῖμα προκείμενα χεῖρας ἴαλλον. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος ἐξ ἔρον ἕντο μνηστῆρες, τοῖσιν μὲν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἄλλα μεμήλει, μολπή τʼ ὀρχηστύς τε· τὰ γάρ τʼ ἀναθήματα δαιτός·
They put out their hands to the good things lying ready before them. But when they had put from themselves the desire for drink and food, in the suitors' minds other things were a care — song and dance; for these are the crowning glories of a feast.
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The setting
The meal winds down. A recurring Homeric formula marks the shift from eating to the after-dinner entertainment the suitors expect as their right.
A note on this passage
A formula closes the eating: 'when they had put away the desire for food and drink.' The line recurs across Homer as the hinge between the meal and what comes after. Here, filled, the suitors want entertainment — their minds turn to song and dance, which the poem calls the crowning glories of a feast.
That phrase, ἀναθήματα δαιτός, is worth a pause: song and dance are the feast's 'consecrated ornaments,' its finishing dedication — the same word will later name a votive offering set up for a god. Homer is naming his own art from inside the scene, and setting the frame for what comes next: the bard. The suitors, at ease in a house that is not theirs, call for music as their due — and the man about to make it does not share their ease.
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