Odyssey 10.46 · Book 10, lines 46–49
The bag is opened
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ὣς ἔφασαν, βουλὴ δὲ κακὴ νίκησεν ἑταίρων· ἀσκὸν μὲν λῦσαν ἄνεμοι δʼ ἐκ πάντες ὄρουσαν. τοὺς δʼ αἶψʼ ἁρπάξασα φέρεν πόντονδε θύελλα κλαίοντας γαίης ἄπο πατρίδος. αὐτὰρ ἐγώ γε
So they spoke, and the crew's evil counsel prevailed. They loosed the bag, and all the winds rushed out. At once the storm-blast seized them and bore them out to sea, weeping, away from their native land. But as for me,
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus's crew, believing the bag holds gold, opens it while he sleeps, releasing all the winds Aeolus had shut inside.
A note on this passage
The decision and its instant result. The crew's bad counsel wins out, they untie the bag, and every wind bursts loose at once. The same storm that pours out carries the ships back the way they came, the men weeping.
Homer sets the catastrophe in a single line: the bag is opened and home vanishes. The winds Aeolus had bound as a gift become the exact force that undoes the gift, driving them from the shore they could already see.
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