Odyssey 10.386 · Book 10, lines 386–387
Set them free, and I will eat
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Odysseus — ἀλλʼ εἰ δὴ πρόφρασσα πιεῖν φαγέμεν τε κελεύεις, λῦσον, ἵνʼ ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἴδω ἐρίηρας ἑταίρους.
But if indeed, in earnest, you bid me to drink and eat, set them free, that with my eyes I may see my trusty comrades.
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Odysseus finishes his reply, turning his refusal into a condition Circe must meet before he will share her table.
A note on this passage
Odysseus closes with a bargain: if Circe truly means her kindness and bids him drink and eat, then let her set his men free, so that he may see his trusty companions with his own eyes. The condition is exact.
He does not refuse her hospitality outright; he makes it conditional on the one thing that matters. The repeated insistence on his eyes asks for proof, not promise. After swine and enchantment, Odysseus will believe the rescue only when he watches it happen.
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