Odyssey 10.483 · Book 10, lines 483–486
Keep the promise you made
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Odysseus — ὢ Κίρκη, τέλεσόν μοι ὑπόσχεσιν ἥν περ ὑπέστης, οἴκαδε πεμψέμεναι· θυμὸς δέ μοι ἔσσυται ἤδη, ἠδʼ ἄλλων ἑτάρων, οἵ μευ φθινύθουσι φίλον κῆρ ἀμφʼ ἔμʼ ὀδυρόμενοι, ὅτε που σύ γε νόσφι γένηαι·
O Circe, fulfil for me the promise which you made, to send me home; my heart is eager now, and my other companions' too, who waste away my dear heart, mourning around me, whenever you are somewhere apart.
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The setting
Odysseus's plea to Circe. She had pledged to send them home; now he calls that promise in, speaking not only for himself but for his men, who are wearing themselves out with grief.
A note on this passage
Odysseus asks plainly for what was promised. The force of the plea is that it is not selfish: his own longing is named first, but at once he folds in the men, whose grief is eating at him even as he speaks. He is the captain answering to his crew.
The wearing phrase is that the men waste his "dear heart" by mourning around him. Their homesickness is a weight he carries, not just their own burden. Circe's charm has held them a year in ease; the moment ease is not enough, the pull toward Ithaca returns as pain, and it falls on the leader to voice it and to move them on.
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