Odyssey 10.566 · Book 10, lines 566–568
No use in weeping
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ὣς ἐφάμην, τοῖσιν δὲ κατεκλάσθη φίλον ἦτορ, ἑζόμενοι δὲ κατʼ αὖθι γόων τίλλοντό τε χαίτας· ἀλλʼ οὐ γάρ τις πρῆξις ἐγίγνετο μυρομένοισιν.
So I spoke, and their dear heart was broken, and sitting down there they wept aloud and tore their hair; but no use came of their lamenting.
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The setting
The crew's reaction to being told their course is the underworld. They break down where they sit — and Odysseus notes, dryly, that it changes nothing.
A note on this passage
The men collapse at the news. They sit down on the spot, wail, and tear their hair, the full ritual language of Homeric grief. It is exactly the response the announcement of a journey to the dead deserves.
Then the narrator closes the door on it: no use came of their lamenting. The flat line is a recurring formula, but here it is also Odysseus's own hard verdict, spoken years later. Grief is allowed its moment and then dismissed as changing nothing; the ship still has to sail. The captain who withheld the destination now records the weeping and, in the same breath, files it as useless.
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