Odyssey 10.144 · Book 10, lines 144–147
He climbs to the lookout
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ τρίτον ἦμαρ ἐυπλόκαμος τέλεσʼ Ἠώς, καὶ τότʼ ἐγὼν ἐμὸν ἔγχος ἑλὼν καὶ φάσγανον ὀξὺ καρπαλίμως παρὰ νηὸς ἀνήιον ἐς περιωπήν, εἴ πως ἔργα ἴδοιμι βροτῶν ἐνοπήν τε πυθοίμην.
But when at last fair-haired Dawn brought to an end the third day, and then I took my spear and a sharp sword, and swiftly from the ship I climbed to a lookout, in hope I might see the works of mortals and catch their cry.
Word by word
The setting
On the third morning Odysseus rouses himself to scout the unknown island — is it worked, peopled, dangerous?
A note on this passage
The captain stirs. When the third dawn comes, Odysseus arms himself with spear and sword and climbs a height to reconnoiter — the ordinary caution of a leader on a strange shore, looking for fields, smoke, any sign of who lives here.
The quiet charge is in what he hopes to find: ἔργα βροτῶν, "the works of mortals," and a human ἐνοπή, a voice. After the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians, that hope is double-edged — signs of habitation promise either welcome or another monster, and he cannot yet know which. So he goes merely to look, and goes armed to the teeth. The formula ἐυπλόκαμος Ἠώς, "fair-haired Dawn," carries the same epithet just spent on Circe, letting the daybreak and the goddess he is about to find rhyme faintly against each other.
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