Odyssey 10.41 · Book 10, lines 41–45
'Let us open the bag'
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A crewman — ληίδος, ἡμεῖς δʼ αὖτε ὁμὴν ὁδὸν ἐκτελέσαντες οἴκαδε νισσόμεθα κενεὰς σὺν χεῖρας ἔχοντες· καὶ νῦν οἱ τάδʼ ἔδωκε χαριζόμενος φιλότητι Αἴολος. ἀλλʼ ἄγε θᾶσσον ἰδώμεθα ὅττι τάδʼ ἐστίν, ὅσσος τις χρυσός τε καὶ ἄργυρος ἀσκῷ ἔνεστιν.
of the spoil; but we in turn, having finished the same journey, return home holding empty hands. And now Aeolus has given him these things, in kindly friendship. But come, let us quickly see what these are, how much gold and silver lies in the bag.
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The setting
Still speaking, the crewman urges the others to open the ox-hide bag Aeolus gave Odysseus, certain it is full of gold and silver.
A note on this passage
The crewman finishes. They have sailed the same hard road and come home with nothing, while Aeolus loaded their captain with gifts. So he proposes the fatal thing: open the bag and count the gold.
Everything turns on a wrong guess. There is no gold; the bag holds the winds themselves. The men's grievance is real, but it makes them undo the one gift that would have carried them home, moments from the shore.
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