Odyssey 10.61 · Book 10, lines 61–63
Back at Aeolus's door
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δαινύμενον παρὰ ᾗ τʼ ἀλόχῳ καὶ οἷσι τέκεσσιν. ἐλθόντες δʼ ἐς δῶμα παρὰ σταθμοῖσιν ἐπʼ οὐδοῦ ἑζόμεθʼ· οἱ δʼ ἀνὰ θυμὸν ἐθάμβεον ἔκ τʼ ἐρέοντο·
[Him] feasting beside his own wife and his own children. Coming into the house, we sat by the doorposts, on the threshold; and they marvelled at heart and questioned us:
Word by word
The setting
Blown back to Aeolia after the crew opened the wind-bag in sight of Ithaca, Odysseus and his men return to the palace of Aeolus, keeper of the winds. They find him at the feast with his family, and sit down, unwelcome, on the threshold.
A note on this passage
The men come back the way a beggar comes: into the house, but only as far as the threshold, sitting where suppliants sit. The household, who had feasted them a month and sent them off with a gift, are simply amazed. The return itself is the shame.
Homer lets the picture carry it. A month before, these were honoured guests; now they crouch at the doorposts of the same hall. Nothing is said of the disaster yet — the amazement of the family says it. The distance from the feast-table to the threshold measures how far Odysseus has fallen in a single night's sleep.
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