Odyssey 10.95 · Book 10, lines 95–97
One ship left outside
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αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν οἶος σχέθον ἔξω νῆα μέλαιναν, αὐτοῦ ἐπʼ ἐσχατιῇ, πέτρης ἐκ πείσματα δήσας· ἔστην δὲ σκοπιὴν ἐς παιπαλόεσσαν ἀνελθών.
But I alone held my black ship outside, there at the very edge, having tied the cables fast to a rock; and climbing up to a rugged lookout, I stood.
Word by word
The setting
Against the whole fleet's choice, Odysseus alone keeps his own black ship out beyond the harbor mouth, moored to a rock at the very edge. Then he climbs a rugged crag to look over the land — the survivor's caution that will save this one crew.
A note on this passage
One line of practical seamanship carries the whole survival of the tale. While eleven captains take the sheltered water, Odysseus moors outside, at the lip of the trap, and goes up high to look before he trusts the place. It is the reflex of the man who has stayed alive this long.
The first person is doing quiet work here. Odysseus is telling this story to the Phaeacians, and the ‘I alone’ both explains why he survived and gently sets him apart from the crew who did not. The caution reads as wisdom in the telling — but it is also the loneliness of the one who lives to speak while the others are eaten.
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