Odyssey 10.254 · Book 10, lines 254–257
The singing at the loom
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Eurylochus — ἔνθα δέ τις μέγαν ἱστὸν ἐποιχομένη λίγʼ ἄειδεν, ἢ θεὸς ἠὲ γυνή· τοὶ δὲ φθέγγοντο καλεῦντες. ἡ δʼ αἶψʼ ἐξελθοῦσα θύρας ὤιξε φαεινὰς καὶ κάλει· οἱ δʼ ἅμα πάντες ἀιδρείῃσιν ἕποντο·
There someone, pacing at a great loom, was singing clearly — either a goddess or a woman — and they called out, hailing her. At once she came out, opened the shining doors, and called them in; and they all together, in their folly, followed.
Word by word
The setting
Eurylochus describes reaching Circe's door: a woman's clear voice singing at a great loom, the men calling to her, and the goddess coming out to welcome them in.
A note on this passage
The lure is beauty and domestic order: a great loom, a clear voice singing over the weaving, a figure who might be goddess or woman. The men call out, she throws open the shining doors and invites them, and all but one walk in.
Homer marks their entry with one cold word — ἀιδρείῃσιν, ‘in their ignorance.’ Weaving and song are the images of the good Homeric woman, the way Penelope and Helen appear; the scene wears the surface of safe welcome. The audience already knows what the men do not, and the poem lets the trap look exactly like a home.
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