Odyssey 10.28 · Book 10, lines 28–30
Ithaca in sight
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ἐννῆμαρ μὲν ὁμῶς πλέομεν νύκτας τε καὶ ἦμαρ, τῇ δεκάτῃ δʼ ἤδη ἀνεφαίνετο πατρὶς ἄρουρα, καὶ δὴ πυρπολέοντας ἐλεύσσομεν ἐγγὺς ἐόντες·
For nine days alike we sailed, night and day; and on the tenth day our native land came into view at last, and already, drawing near, we could see men tending fires.
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The setting
Nine days of steady sailing bring them, on the tenth, within sight of home — close enough to see people on shore tending their fires.
A note on this passage
Nine days of unbroken sailing bring the tenth, and Ithaca lifts into view — so close now that they can make out people on shore tending their fires. The homecoming is a hand's breadth away.
This is the poem at its most quietly cruel. It names the ‘native soil’ and shows the very hearth-fires of home just as the disaster is about to strike, for the reader already knows the crew will open the bag within sight of land. The whole of Book 10's first movement has climbed to this ledge: home close enough to see its smoke, and about to be blown all the way back.
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