Odyssey 10.189 · Book 10, lines 189–193
We know no direction
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Odysseus — κέκλυτέ μευ μύθων, κακά περ πάσχοντες ἑταῖροι· ὦ φίλοι, οὐ γάρ τʼ ἴδμεν, ὅπῃ ζόφος οὐδʼ ὅπῃ ἠώς, οὐδʼ ὅπῃ ἠέλιος φαεσίμβροτος εἶσʼ ὑπὸ γαῖαν, οὐδʼ ὅπῃ ἀννεῖται· ἀλλὰ φραζώμεθα θᾶσσον εἴ τις ἔτʼ ἔσται μῆτις. ἐγὼ δʼ οὔκ οἴομαι εἶναι.
Hearken to my words, comrades, though you suffer ills: my friends, since we do not know where the darkness lies, nor where the dawn, nor where the sun that shines on mortals goes beneath the earth, nor where it rises, but let us consider, and quickly, whether any plan will still remain. But I do not think there is one.
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The setting
Odysseus addresses his frightened men on Aeaea. He does not yet know whose island this is, or even how it lies to the rising and setting sun.
A note on this passage
Odysseus admits, plainly, that they are lost. They cannot tell east from west, cannot say where the sun sets or rises. He asks whether any plan is left, and answers himself: he thinks not.
This is the man of many wiles confessing that his cunning has run out. To be without bearings, not even to know where the dawn is, is the deepest disorientation in a poem built around finding the way home. The leader who always has a scheme opens by saying he has none.
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