Odyssey 10.91 · Book 10, lines 91–94
The still harbor
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ἔνθʼ οἵ γʼ εἴσω πάντες ἔχον νέας ἀμφιελίσσας. αἱ μὲν ἄρʼ ἔντοσθεν λιμένος κοίλοιο δέδεντο πλησίαι· οὐ μὲν γάρ ποτʼ ἀέξετο κῦμά γʼ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὔτε μέγʼ οὔτʼ ὀλίγον, λευκὴ δʼ ἦν ἀμφὶ γαλήνη·
There they all drove their curved ships inside; within the hollow harbor they lay moored close, for no wave ever swelled within it, neither great nor small, and a white calm lay all around.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus's tale goes on. His twelve ships row into the Laestrygonians' land and slip inside a landlocked harbor — sheer cliffs on either side, a narrow mouth, water so sheltered no wave ever stirs. It looks like perfect refuge.
A note on this passage
The ships come to rest in a harbor that seems made for safety: a rock-walled basin where the sea never rises, the fleet packed side by side on water like glass. Homer spends four lines on the stillness before he spends any on the danger.
That stillness is the trap. The very features that make the harbor perfect — one narrow mouth, sheer walls, no swell to fight — are what will pin eleven ships helpless while boulders rain down. The calm is not refuge but a snare, and the poem lets the reader admire it a moment before the teeth close.
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