Odyssey 10.395 · Book 10, lines 395–397
Younger than before
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ἄνδρες δʼ ἂψ ἐγένοντο νεώτεροι ἢ πάρος ἦσαν, καὶ πολὺ καλλίονες καὶ μείζονες εἰσοράασθαι. ἔγνωσαν δέ μʼ ἐκεῖνοι ἔφυν τʼ ἐν χερσὶν ἕκαστος.
And the men became younger again than they were before, and far fairer and taller to behold. Those men recognized me, and each clung onto my hands.
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The setting
The salve has done its work. Odysseus watches his crew turn from swine back into men — and more than restored: made young and fair. They know him at once.
A note on this passage
The reversal overshoots. The men do not merely return to what they were; they come back younger, taller, more beautiful than before. Circe's power, turned to mercy, gives more than it took.
The last line is the human beat. As soon as they have hands again, they use them — each man seizes Odysseus's. The verb ἔφυν, ‘grew onto,’ is the same root Homer used a few lines back for the bristles growing on their skin; here it is grip, not growth, the body's first act of recognition after captivity in an animal shape.
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