Odyssey 1.350 · Book 1, lines 350–355
The newest song
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τούτῳ δʼ οὐ νέμεσις Δαναῶν κακὸν οἶτον ἀείδειν· τὴν γὰρ ἀοιδὴν μᾶλλον ἐπικλείουσʼ ἄνθρωποι, ἥ τις ἀκουόντεσσι νεωτάτη ἀμφιπέληται. σοὶ δʼ ἐπιτολμάτω κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀκούειν· οὐ γὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς οἶος ἀπώλεσε νόστιμον ἦμαρ ἐν Τροίῃ, πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ ἄλλοι φῶτες ὄλοντο.
And for this man there is no blame if he sings the Danaans' hard doom; for people extol that song the more which comes round newest to the listeners. So let your heart and spirit steel themselves to listen; for not Odysseus alone lost his homecoming day at Troy, but many other men also perished.
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus presses on. There is no blame in singing the Danaans' hard fate — audiences prize the newest song most; and let Penelope's own heart bear to hear it, for Odysseus was not the only man who lost his day of homecoming at Troy.
A note on this passage
Telemachus keeps arguing, and the ground shifts from theology to taste. There is no blame in this song, he says, because it is the fresh one — and listeners always prize the newest song most. It is one of the poem's rare glances at its own trade: the returns from Troy are current events, and an audience leans toward the latest news sung.
Underneath the literary point is a harder one, aimed straight at his mother. Steel your heart, he tells her; Odysseus was not the only man who never came home. It is true, and it is cold — the consolation that says your loss is not special. A son not yet grown is teaching his grieving mother the arithmetic of a war that emptied a hundred houses, not only hers.
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