Odyssey 10.31 · Book 10, lines 31–33
Sleep takes him within sight of home
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ἔνθʼ ἐμὲ μὲν γλυκὺς ὕπνος ἐπήλυθε κεκμηῶτα, αἰεὶ γὰρ πόδα νηὸς ἐνώμων, οὐδέ τῳ ἄλλῳ δῶχʼ ἑτάρων, ἵνα θᾶσσον ἱκοίμεθα πατρίδα γαῖαν·
There sweet sleep came over me, worn out as I was, for I had always worked the ship's sheet, and gave it to no other of my comrades, so that we might reach our native land the sooner.
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The setting
Aeolus, king of the winds, has given Odysseus a bag holding every wind but the one that blows them home. After nine days' sailing, Ithaca is finally in sight.
A note on this passage
Odysseus explains why he was asleep at the worst possible moment. For nine days and nights he had held the ship's sheet himself, trusting no crewman with it, driving the ship toward Ithaca. Exhaustion finally took him.
The detail is also self-defense. He is telling the Phaeacians that the disaster came not from his negligence but from its opposite, care carried past the limit of the body. The one time he let go, he let go because he had done everything himself.
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