Odyssey 1.406 · Book 1, lines 406–409
Whence the stranger, and why
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ὁππόθεν οὗτος ἀνήρ, ποίης δʼ ἐξ εὔχεται εἶναι γαίης, ποῦ δέ νύ οἱ γενεὴ καὶ πατρὶς ἄρουρα. ἠέ τινʼ ἀγγελίην πατρὸς φέρει ἐρχομένοιο, ἦ ἑὸν αὐτοῦ χρεῖος ἐελδόμενος τόδʼ ἱκάνει;
From where is this man, and from what land does he claim to be, and where now is his lineage and native soil? Whether he brings some news of your father's coming, or comes here longing for some need of his own?
Word by word
The setting
Eurymachus presses his question about the departed guest — the standard guest-friend's inquiry (birth, homeland, errand), but sharpened here by the suitors' wish to know whether real news of Odysseus has arrived.
A note on this passage
This is the formal interrogation a host puts to a guest — origin, homeland, family, errand — the fixed catechism of Homeric hospitality. Eurymachus runs through it correctly, one clause stacked on the next.
The undercurrent is the one question inside the formula that he actually cares about: did the man bring word of Odysseus? The two alternatives he offers — news of the returning father, or a private errand of the stranger's own — expose the suitors' single fear. A living, homeward Odysseus ends them. The polite ritual of ‘who is your guest?’ carries, underneath its courtesy, a check on whether the master of the house is about to walk back through the door.
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