Odyssey 1.227 · Book 1, lines 227–229
A man of sense would be outraged
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ὥς τέ μοι ὑβρίζοντες ὑπερφιάλως δοκέουσι δαίνυσθαι κατὰ δῶμα. νεμεσσήσαιτό κεν ἀνὴρ αἴσχεα πόλλʼ ὁρόων, ὅς τις πινυτός γε μετέλθοι.
For to me they seem to be feasting insolently, arrogantly through the house. A man would be indignant, seeing many outrages, whoever came among them with any sense.
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The setting
Athena, still as Mentes, says outright what the disguise of an outsider lets her say: the men filling the hall are feasting in arrogance.
A note on this passage
Athena says plainly what her disguise as an outsider lets her say: these men are feasting through the house with insolence, in arrogance. Any person of sense walking in, she adds, would be filled with indignation at so much disgrace.
The two Greek words are the poem's moral engine. ὕβρις — the overreaching that tramples the bond between host and guest — provokes νέμεσις, the righteous outrage that gods and decent men feel alike. By naming the suitors' hubris and the nemesis it must draw, Athena is not merely commenting; she is stating the law under which they are already condemned. The guest-feast, the sacred machinery of xenia, has been turned inside out: the guests are eating the host alive.
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