Odyssey 10.382 · Book 10, lines 382–385
No righteous man could eat first
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ὣς ἔφατʼ, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ μιν ἀμειβόμενος προσέειπον·
Odysseus — ὦ Κίρκη, τίς γάρ κεν ἀνήρ, ὃς ἐναίσιμος εἴη, πρὶν τλαίη πάσσασθαι ἐδητύος ἠδὲ ποτῆτος, πρὶν λύσασθʼ ἑτάρους καὶ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἰδέσθαι;
So she spoke, but I, answering her, addressed her: O Circe, for what man who was righteous would bring himself to taste food and drink, before he had freed his comrades and seen them with his own eyes?
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The setting
Odysseus replies to Circe's question about why he will not eat. His men are still penned as swine, and that is his whole answer.
A note on this passage
Odysseus answers her plainly: no man with any sense of what is right could bring himself to taste food or drink before he had freed his companions and seen them with his own eyes. The refusal is turned into a principle.
He frames it not as private grief but as what a decent man owes his own. The captain's hunger waits on his crew's rescue; his own comfort is hostage to theirs. It is the same loyalty that sent him alone up to this hall, now stated as a rule he will not break even for a goddess's table.
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