Odyssey 10.107 · Book 10, lines 107–111
She points to the house
Read the full text in our reader
ἡ μὲν ἄρʼ ἐς κρήνην κατεβήσετο καλλιρέεθρον Ἀρτακίην· ἔνθεν γὰρ ὕδωρ προτὶ ἄστυ φέρεσκον· οἱ δὲ παριστάμενοι προσεφώνεον ἔκ τʼ ἐρέοντο ὅς τις τῶνδʼ εἴη βασιλεὺς καὶ οἷσιν ἀνάσσοι· ἡ δὲ μάλʼ αὐτίκα πατρὸς ἐπέφραδεν ὑψερεφὲς δῶ.
She had gone down to the fair-flowing spring, Artakie, for from there they carried water to the town. Standing beside her, they spoke and asked who was king of these people, and over whom he ruled; and she at once pointed out her father's high-roofed house.
Word by word
The setting
The girl has come down to the town's spring, Artakie, for the household's water. The scouts step up and ask the ordinary traveler's question — who is king here, whom does he rule. Without hesitation she points them to her father's high-roofed house.
A note on this passage
The exchange is courteous and quick. The men put the traveler's proper question — who rules here — and the girl helpfully names her father's tall house and sends them straight to it. On the surface it is a small kindness to strangers.
The kindness is the killing stroke. Where Nausicaa's directions led Odysseus to safety, this daughter walks the scouts to her father's door as neatly as if she meant it. She does not; she is only answering. But the poem lets guest-friendship's own machinery — ask the way, be shown the house — deliver the men to the table where they will be eaten.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 10.107 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 10.107 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/10.107/