Odyssey 10.251 · Book 10, lines 251–253
‘We went, as you ordered’
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Eurylochus — ἤιομεν, ὡς ἐκέλευες, ἀνὰ δρυμά, φαίδιμʼ Ὀδυσσεῦ· εὕρομεν ἐν βήσσῃσι τετυγμένα δώματα καλὰ ξεστοῖσιν λάεσσι, περισκέπτῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ.
We went, as you ordered, up through the thickets, glorious Odysseus, and we found in the glens a fair hall, well-built of polished stones, far-seen in a place.
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The setting
Eurylochus begins his report to Odysseus, retracing the scouting party's route up through the woods to the house they found.
A note on this passage
His account opens with deference — ‘as you ordered, glorious Odysseus’ — and with precise scene-setting: through the thickets, and there in the glens a fair house of dressed stone, standing in a clearing open to view on every side.
The care of the description does quiet work. A polished-stone hall, conspicuous in a cleared place, reads as wealth and settled power, not a monster's den. Everything Eurylochus saw looked like an invitation to the very hospitality the poem prizes — which is exactly how the trap was baited.
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Odyssey 10.251 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/10.251/