Odyssey 10.421 · Book 10, line 421
Tell us how the others died
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the men — ἀλλʼ ἄγε, τῶν ἄλλων ἑτάρων κατάλεξον ὄλεθρον.
But come, tell the ruin of the other comrades.
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The setting
Circe has turned Odysseus's men back from swine to human form. His waiting crew, weeping with relief at seeing him again, greet him — and as their welcome ends, they beg to hear the fate of the comrades already lost.
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The rescued crew close their welcome with a hard turn. Overjoyed as they are, the last thing they ask is not about Circe or the feast but about the dead: recount the ruin of the other comrades.
Homer lets the joy last barely a line before grief reclaims it. Even a reunion in this poem is shadowed by counting who did not come back, and the men make Odysseus, the survivor, also the one who must name the losses.
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