Odyssey 10.478 · Book 10, lines 478–480
Nightfall — the crew sleep, and I go to Circe
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ἦμος δʼ ἠέλιος κατέδυ καὶ ἐπὶ κνέφας ἦλθεν, οἱ μὲν κοιμήσαντο κατὰ μέγαρα σκιόεντα. αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ Κίρκης ἐπιβὰς περικαλλέος εὐνῆς
And when the sun set and darkness came on, they, indeed, lay down to sleep throughout the shadowy halls. But I, having gone up to Circe’s lovely bed,
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The setting
The last feast ends at sunset. As the block closes, the crew bed down in Circe's shadowy halls, while Odysseus goes up to the goddess's bed — a sentence the next lines complete.
A note on this passage
Sunset closes the feast. The crew lie down to sleep in the shadowy halls, and the block ends on Odysseus turning, alone, to Circe's bed — a clause the poem finishes in the following lines.
Homer separates the men from their captain with a single 'but I.' They sleep as a group in the hall; he goes up to the goddess. That quiet division — the crew below, the hero with Circe — is the shape of the whole year, and the last image before the great turn toward Teiresias and the House of the Dead.
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