Odyssey 10.87 · Book 10, lines 87–90
The trap of a harbour
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ἔνθʼ ἐπεὶ ἐς λιμένα κλυτὸν ἤλθομεν, ὃν πέρι πέτρη ἠλίβατος τετύχηκε διαμπερὲς ἀμφοτέρωθεν, ἀκταὶ δὲ προβλῆτες ἐναντίαι ἀλλήλῃσιν ἐν στόματι προύχουσιν, ἀραιὴ δʼ εἴσοδός ἐστιν,
There, when we came into the famous harbour, around which a cliff, sheer, runs unbroken on both sides, and jutting headlands, facing one another, project at the mouth, and the entrance is narrow,
Word by word
The setting
They row into the Laestrygonians' famous harbour. Homer describes it precisely: sheer cliffs enclosing it on both sides, two headlands almost meeting at the mouth, a single narrow way in. Every ship but Odysseus's will moor inside.
A note on this passage
The description is all shape, and the shape is a snare. A ring of sheer cliff, two arms of land nearly closed at the mouth, one thin entrance: everything that makes a harbour safe from storm makes it deadly to anyone trapped inside. Homer builds the geometry carefully because the geometry is the disaster.
The undercurrent is dramatic irony written into stone. What the tired crew reads as shelter — calm water, a wall against the sea — is exactly the killing-jar the giants will use. The one narrow entrance that keeps the waves out will keep the ships in. Odysseus, telling it, lingers on the safe-looking cliffs because he already knows what moored inside them.
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