Odyssey 1.271 · Book 1, lines 271–273
Call the assembly, with the gods as witnesses
Read the full text in our reader
εἰ δʼ ἄγε νῦν ξυνίει καὶ ἐμῶν ἐμπάζεο μύθων;· αὔριον εἰς ἀγορὴν καλέσας ἥρωας Ἀχαιοὺς μῦθον πέφραδε πᾶσι, θεοὶ δʼ ἐπὶ μάρτυροι ἔστων.
But come now, hear me and heed my words: tomorrow, summon the Achaean heroes to assembly, and declare your word to them all, and let the gods be witnesses besides.
Word by word
The setting
Athena's practical counsel begins: tomorrow Telemachus is to summon the Achaean nobles to a formal assembly and state his case before them all, calling the gods to witness.
A note on this passage
The counsel turns practical and public. Athena gives Telemachus his first political instruction: call an assembly of the Achaean nobles tomorrow, and state his case openly before them all, with the gods called to witness.
This is the assembly of Book 2, prescribed here in advance. For the whole length of the war there has been no assembly on Ithaca — the poem will point that out — so to summon one is itself the act of a man stepping into his father's place. Athena is not so much handing him a plan as pushing him onto the public stage of adults. And ‘let the gods be witnesses’ turns a family grievance into a matter of oath and law: the first move from private suffering to a claim that can be judged.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 1.271 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 1.271 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/1.271/