Odyssey 10.174 · Book 10, lines 174–177
‘Not yet to Hades’ — he rallies them
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Odysseus — ὦ φίλοι, οὐ γάρ πω καταδυσόμεθʼ ἀχνύμενοί περ εἰς Ἀίδαο δόμους, πρὶν μόρσιμον ἦμαρ ἐπέλθῃ· ἀλλʼ ἄγετʼ, ὄφρʼ ἐν νηὶ θοῇ βρῶσίς τε πόσις τε, μνησόμεθα βρώμης, μηδὲ τρυχώμεθα λιμῷ.
Friends, for not yet shall we go down to the house of Hades, grieved though we are, before the fated day comes upon us; but come, while in the swift ship there is food and drink, let us take thought of food, and not waste away with hunger.
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The setting
Standing over the fallen stag beside the ship, Odysseus speaks to his grieving men, who have lost their comrades to the Laestrygonians.
A note on this passage
Odysseus rallies the crew. His argument is blunt and steadying: we will not die before our appointed day, whatever our grief, so there is no sense in wasting away now; while there is still food and drink aboard, let us eat. It is the speech of a captain refusing to let despair finish what the Laestrygonians began.
The consolation rests on the oldest Greek idea of death — the morsimon emar, the ‘fated day,’ fixed and not to be hurried by mourning. And there is a grim edge under his kindness: he names the ‘house of Hades’ out loud, the very place Circe will soon send him to visit alive. The comfort of ‘not yet’ quietly admits that the day is only postponed.
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