Odyssey 10.569 · Book 10, lines 569–574
Who can see a god unwilling?
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δή ῥʼ ἐπὶ νῆα θοὴν καὶ θῖνα θαλάσσης ᾔομεν ἀχνύμενοι θαλερὸν κατὰ δάκρυ χέοντες, τόφρα δʼ ἄρʼ οἰχομένη Κίρκη παρὰ νηὶ μελαίνῃ ἀρνειὸν κατέδησεν ὄιν θῆλύν τε μέλαιναν, ῥεῖα παρεξελθοῦσα· τίς ἂν θεὸν οὐκ ἐθέλοντα ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἴδοιτʼ ἢ ἔνθʼ ἢ ἔνθα κιόντα;
But when we came down to the swift ship and the shore of the sea, grieving, shedding warm tears, meanwhile Circe, going out, beside the black ship tethered a ram and a black ewe, slipping easily past us. Who could see a god who does not wish it, with his eyes, going here or there?
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The setting
The grieving crew reach the beached ship. As they do, Circe has quietly come and gone, leaving a ram and a black ewe tethered by the ship for the sacrifice the dead will require. Odysseus marvels that no one saw her pass.
A note on this passage
The men come down to the ship in tears, and while they weep Circe has already been and gone, leaving the ram and black ewe the journey to the dead will need. She does it unseen, slipping past a whole crew with ease.
The unit ends on a rare narrator's aside, a small piece of wisdom: who, with mortal eyes, could see a god going to and fro if the god did not wish it? The animals for the underworld appear as if by themselves. The line quietly restates the gap the whole episode turns on, that the gods move freely through a world where men see only what they are allowed to, and the provisioning of the dead is arranged just out of sight.
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