Odyssey 10.284 · Book 10, lines 284–286
You will not come back — unless
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Hermes — ἦ τοὺς λυσόμενος δεῦρʼ ἔρχεαι; οὐδέ σέ φημι αὐτὸν νοστήσειν, μενέεις δὲ σύ γʼ, ἔνθα περ ἄλλοι. ἀλλʼ ἄγε δή σε κακῶν ἐκλύσομαι ἠδὲ σαώσω.
Is it to free them you have come here? I tell you, you will not return yourself; but you will stay right where the others are. But come — I will free you from evils and save you.
Word by word
The setting
Hermes reads Odysseus's purpose: he has come to rescue the men. The god warns bluntly that the rescue will fail and Odysseus will be trapped with them — then offers his help.
A note on this passage
The god states the plain outcome first, with no softening: you will not return, you will be held here with the rest. Only after that flat verdict does he turn — ἀλλʼ ἄγε, ‘but come’ — and offer the way out. Doom and rescue are set one against the other in three lines.
The order is deliberate. Hermes lets the failure stand fully before he cancels it, so the help lands as a real reprieve and not a formality. This is how divine aid works in the poem: the gods do not spare the mortal the knowledge of what he faces; they arm him to face it.
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