Odyssey 10.281 · Book 10, lines 281–283
Where are you going, wretched man?
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Hermes — πῇ δὴ αὖτʼ, ὦ δύστηνε, διʼ ἄκριας ἔρχεαι οἶος, χώρου ἄιδρις ἐών; ἕταροι δέ τοι οἵδʼ ἐνὶ Κίρκης ἔρχαται ὥς τε σύες πυκινοὺς κευθμῶνας ἔχοντες.
Where now again, O wretched one, do you go alone through the hilltops, ignorant of the country? Your comrades here are penned in Circe's halls, just like swine, keeping to close lairs.
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The setting
Hermes' first words to Odysseus. He already knows where the man is bound and what has become of the scouting party — turned to swine and shut in Circe's sties.
A note on this passage
The god opens with a reproach dressed as a question: where do you think you are going, alone and knowing nothing of this ground? Then he lays out the fact Odysseus most fears — the men are already penned like animals in Circe's hall.
The comparison is exact and cruel. ἔρχαται is a word for livestock shut in a fold, and σύες, swine, stands right beside it. Circe's magic has not merely disguised the men; it has moved them out of the human category into the herded one. δύστηνε, ‘wretched,’ is the god's pity and his warning at once — here is a man walking unarmed into that same danger.
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