Odyssey 10.156 · Book 10, lines 156–160
A god sends a great stag across his path
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ σχεδὸν ἦα κιὼν νεὸς ἀμφιελίσσης, καὶ τότε τίς με θεῶν ὀλοφύρατο μοῦνον ἐόντα, ὅς ῥά μοι ὑψίκερων ἔλαφον μέγαν εἰς ὁδὸν αὐτὴν ἧκεν. ὁ μὲν ποταμόνδε κατήιεν ἐκ νομοῦ ὕλης πιόμενος· δὴ γάρ μιν ἔχεν μένος ἠελίοιο.
But when at last I was near, as I went to the rolling ship, just then some one of the gods took pity on me, being all alone, who let loose for me a great high-antlered stag right into my path. It was coming down to the river from its woodland pasture, to drink; for indeed the sun's might gripped it hard.
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The setting
Odysseus is walking back down toward his beached ship after seeing the smoke. He is by himself, having left the crew behind.
A note on this passage
As Odysseus comes back within reach of the ship, a god pities him in his loneliness and sends a huge antlered stag straight across his way. The animal is coming down out of the forest to the river to drink, driven from cover by the heat of the sun.
The moment is quiet mercy inside a grim book. Odysseus is ‘all alone,’ mounon, the word set bare in the line; the unnamed god’s gift is not a rescue from monsters but simply food, arriving at the exact hour of need. Homer leaves the god unnamed — what matters is that the world, just now, is not only hostile.
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