Odyssey 10.310 · Book 10, lines 310–313
At the goddess's doors
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ἔστην δʼ εἰνὶ θύρῃσι θεᾶς καλλιπλοκάμοιο· ἔνθα στὰς ἐβόησα, θεὰ δέ μευ ἔκλυεν αὐδῆς. ἡ δʼ αἶψʼ ἐξελθοῦσα θύρας ὤιξε φαεινὰς καὶ κάλει· αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν ἑπόμην ἀκαχήμενος ἦτορ.
I stood at the doors of the fair-tressed goddess; standing there I called aloud, and the goddess heard my voice. At once she came out, opened the shining doors, and called me in; but I followed with a grieving heart.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus reaches Circe's house and calls at the gate. The enchantress answers at once, opening her shining doors and inviting him in; he follows, dreading it.
A note on this passage
The type-scene of arrival, done fast. He stops at the threshold, shouts, is heard, is welcomed in — the ordinary choreography of Homeric guest-arrival, the same beats a friendly host would follow. Circe plays the perfect hostess, doors flung wide, a call to come inside.
The undercurrent is that Odysseus knows better and comes anyway. The one false note in the smooth welcome is his own heart: ἀκαχήμενος ἦτορ, ‘grieving at heart,’ he crosses a threshold he has been warned is a trap. The hospitality is real and the danger is real at once, and he walks in with his eyes open because his men are inside.
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