Odyssey 1.403 · Book 1, lines 403–405
But let me ask about the stranger
Read the full text in our reader
μὴ γὰρ ὅ γʼ ἔλθοι ἀνὴρ ὅς τίς σʼ ἀέκοντα βίηφιν κτήματʼ ἀπορραίσει, Ἰθάκης ἔτι ναιετοώσης. ἀλλʼ ἐθέλω σε, φέριστε, περὶ ξείνοιο ἐρέσθαι,
For may no such man come — a man who against your will would wrest away your goods by force, while Ithaca is still inhabited. But I wish to ask you, most noble one, about the stranger:
Word by word
The setting
Eurymachus rounds off his courtesy — no one, he says, should strip Telemachus of his goods by force while Ithaca stands — and then turns, with studied smoothness, to what he really wants to know: the identity of the guest who has just left.
A note on this passage
The suitor finishes reassuring and starts probing. The wish that no one seize Telemachus's property by force is generous on its face — and pointed, since seizure by numbers rather than force is precisely what the suitors are doing to the estate every day. Then, with a flattering ‘most noble one,’ Eurymachus pivots to the guest.
The undercurrent is the alertness under the manners. A stranger came, spoke privately with the heir, and vanished; a suitor notices. Eurymachus's real business is intelligence — who was that, and what did he bring? — and he wraps it in a compliment, the way the whole suitor courtship is force wrapped in feasting. The politeness and the surveillance are the same gesture.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 1.403 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 1.403 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/1.403/