Odyssey 10.481 · Book 10, lines 481–482
I clasped her knees and spoke
Read the full text in our reader
γούνων ἐλλιτάνευσα, θεὰ δέ μευ ἔκλυεν αὐδῆς· καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδων·
By her knees I besought her, and the goddess heard my voice; and speaking winged words I addressed her:
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus is telling the Phaeacians how his year on Circe's island ended. His men have begged him to ask the goddess to let them go home. He goes to her, takes the suppliant's posture at her knees, and speaks.
A note on this passage
The unit is a single formal gesture and its result. Odysseus takes the suppliant's hold at the knees, the fixed physical language of a plea that cannot be refused lightly, and the goddess hears him. Then the standard verse for beginning a speech, "winged words," hands us over to what he says next.
What sits under the formula is who is kneeling. This is the man of many wiles, the sacker of cities, on his knees to the witch who kept him a year. The suppliant's posture is the same whether a beggar or a hero uses it, and Homer lets Odysseus take it without comment, because getting home is worth more than the pose of pride.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 10.481 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 10.481 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/10.481/