Odyssey 10.151 · Book 10, lines 151–155
He ponders, then turns back to feed the men
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μερμήριξα δʼ ἔπειτα κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμὸν ἐλθεῖν ἠδὲ πυθέσθαι, ἐπεὶ ἴδον αἴθοπα καπνόν. ὧδε δέ μοι φρονέοντι δοάσσατο κέρδιον εἶναι, πρῶτʼ ἐλθόντʼ ἐπὶ νῆα θοὴν καὶ θῖνα θαλάσσης δεῖπνον ἑταίροισιν δόμεναι προέμεν τε πυθέσθαι.
Then I pondered in mind and heart, whether to go and find out, since I had seen the curling smoke. And thus, as I pondered, this seemed to me the better course: first to go to the swift ship and the sea's shore, to give my companions dinner, and send them forth to find out.
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The setting
Odysseus is on Aeaea, Circe’s island, though he does not yet know whose it is. He has climbed a rocky lookout and seen smoke rising from the forest inland. Here he weighs what to do.
A note on this passage
Odysseus deliberates. He has seen smoke rising from the wooded interior of the island and weighs whether to press on and investigate at once. He decides the prudent thing first: go back to the ship, feed the men, and send out a scouting party rather than walk into the unknown alone.
The choice shows the commander in him. Curiosity is real, but hunger and the safety of the crew come first, and knowledge is something to be gathered, not risked for. The doubled formula — ‘in mind and in heart,’ kata phrena kai kata thymon — is Homer’s standard way of picturing thought as a weighing that fills the whole inner self.
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