Odyssey 1.392 · Book 1, lines 392–395
It is no bad thing to be king
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οὐ μὲν γάρ τι κακὸν βασιλευέμεν· αἶψά τέ οἱ δῶ ἀφνειὸν πέλεται καὶ τιμηέστερος αὐτός. ἀλλʼ ἦ τοι βασιλῆες Ἀχαιῶν εἰσὶ καὶ ἄλλοι πολλοὶ ἐν ἀμφιάλῳ Ἰθάκῃ, νέοι ἠδὲ παλαιοί,
For it is no bad thing to be a king: at once his house grows rich, and he himself is more honored. But surely there are other kings of the Achaeans too, many, in sea-girt Ithaca, both young and old —
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The setting
Telemachus completes his reply: kingship is nothing to be ashamed of — but he graciously concedes there are many other men who might hold it. His sentence runs on past this block.
A note on this passage
Telemachus finishes the thought evenly. Kingship, he says, is no misfortune: a king's house prospers at once, and he himself is more honored. Then he yields ground gracefully — there are many other Achaean nobles, young and old, who might hold the kingship of Ithaca; let one of them have it.
The undercurrent is the honor-economy laid bare. A king is defined by two things, wealth and τιμή, honor — and those are exactly the two currencies the suitors are chasing, by eating the estate and courting the queen. Telemachus names the prize aloud, then sets it down: he will settle for mastery of his own house (as the next lines say) even if another wins the throne. It is the shrewd move of a ‘wise’ speaker — concede the crown, hold the home.
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