Odyssey 10.302 · Book 10, lines 302–303
He drew it from the earth
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ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας πόρε φάρμακον ἀργεϊφόντης ἐκ γαίης ἐρύσας, καί μοι φύσιν αὐτοῦ ἔδειξε.
So speaking, the Argeïphontes gave me the herb, drawing it from the earth, and showed me its nature.
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The setting
Odysseus, narrating to the Phaeacians, tells how Hermes handed him the counter-drug against Circe. ‘Argeïphontes’ (Argus-slayer) is a fixed epithet of Hermes.
A note on this passage
Pure narration of the gift. Hermes speaks, plucks the plant out of the ground, and shows Odysseus what it is — φύσιν αὐτοῦ, ‘its nature.’ The god does not just hand over a charm; he teaches, opening the plant to the eye before the man will need it.
The quiet thing here is the word φύσις. Later Greek made it the great word for ‘nature’ itself; here, in one of its earliest appearances, it is concrete and small — the ‘growth,’ the look and make of a single herb. The abstraction the philosophers will build begins as Hermes turning a root in his fingers.
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