Odyssey 10.487 · Book 10, lines 487–489
So I spoke; the goddess answered
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ὣς ἐφάμην, ἡ δʼ αὐτίκʼ ἀμείβετο δῖα θεάων·
Circe — διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη, πολυμήχανʼ Ὀδυσσεῦ, μηκέτι νῦν ἀέκοντες ἐμῷ ἐνὶ μίμνετε οἴκῳ·
So I spoke, and at once the bright goddess answered: Zeus-born son of Laertes, resourceful Odysseus, no longer now remain unwilling in my house.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus finishes his plea. Circe replies at once, opening with the full grand address she always gives him, then telling him plainly that his time as her unwilling guest is over.
A note on this passage
The narration hands off to speech with the poem's fixed machinery: "so I spoke," the shining epithet for the goddess, the grand roll-call of Odysseus's lineage and cunning. Then Circe grants the request in a single line, telling him not to stay against his will.
The surprise is how easily she yields. The witch who drugged his men and kept him a year does not argue; she releases him at once. But the release is only the first half of a sentence. The next word will be "but," and the way home she is about to name leads not toward Ithaca but down to the land of the dead.
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