Odyssey 10.453 · Book 10, lines 453–455
Recognition, weeping, and Circe at my side
Read the full text in our reader
οἱ δʼ ἐπεὶ ἀλλήλους εἶδον φράσσαντό τʼ ἐσάντα, κλαῖον ὀδυρόμενοι, περὶ δὲ στεναχίζετο δῶμα. ἡ δέ μευ ἄγχι στᾶσα προσηύδα δῖα θεάων·
And when they saw one another and knew [them] face to face, they wept, lamenting, and round about the house resounded; and she, standing near me, spoke to me, divine among goddesses:
Word by word
The setting
The rescued crew and their comrades come face to face. The reunion breaks into open grief before Circe, the goddess, steps close to Odysseus to speak.
A note on this passage
The men recognize each other and their weeping fills the house; then Circe, called 'divine among goddesses,' comes close to Odysseus to speak. The unit turns from the crew's grief to the goddess who caused and cured it.
Homer notes that they knew one another 'face to face' — a small stress on recognition in a poem obsessed with it. These are men who had lost their human shape; seeing and being truly seen is the proof they are restored. The tears are relief, not sorrow, and the goddess who broke them now stands ready to comfort.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 10.453 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 10.453 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/10.453/