Odyssey 1.410 · Book 1, lines 410–412
No base man to look at
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οἷον ἀναΐξας ἄφαρ οἴχεται, οὐδʼ ὑπέμεινε γνώμεναι· οὐ μὲν γάρ τι κακῷ εἰς ὦπα ἐῴκει. τὸν δʼ αὖ Τηλέμαχος πεπνυμένος ἀντίον ηὔδα·
How he sprang up and suddenly went off, nor did he wait to be recognized; for he looked in no way at all like a base man in the face. Then in turn wise Telemachus spoke to him in answer:
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The setting
Eurymachus finishes his question about the vanished guest, struck by how abruptly he left and how noble he looked — a shrewd reading, since the ‘stranger’ was Athena in disguise. Then the reply-formula turns the floor to Telemachus.
A note on this passage
Eurymachus closes on an observation, not a demand. The guest left with startling speed and would not stay to be identified — and, the suitor adds, he had the face of no low-born man. It is a sharp eye, and it lands on the truth without touching it.
The undercurrent is the dramatic irony the audience already holds. The guest ‘looked like no base man’ because the guest was Athena. Eurymachus has half-seen the god and read it only as good breeding — the poem's recurring joke and threat: the divine passes through the hall in plain sight, and the men closest to the danger register it as a matter of manners. The formulaic ‘wise Telemachus’ then arrives over a boy who is about to lie carefully to the man questioning him.
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