Odyssey 2.13 · Book 2, lines 13–16
The father's seat; old Aegyptius rises
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τὸν δʼ ἄρα πάντες λαοὶ ἐπερχόμενον θηεῦντο· ἕζετο δʼ ἐν πατρὸς θώκῳ, εἶξαν δὲ γέροντες· τοῖσι δʼ ἔπειθʼ ἥρως Αἰγύπτιος ἦρχʼ ἀγορεύειν, ὃς δὴ γήραϊ κυφὸς ἔην καὶ μυρία ᾔδη.
And all the people gazed at him as he came on; he took his father's seat, and the elders gave way. Among them then the hero Aegyptius began to speak — a man bent with age who knew countless things.
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus arrives to every eye on him, and does the decisive thing: he sits in Odysseus's own seat, and the town's elders yield it to him without a word. Then the first speaker stands — Aegyptius, an aged Ithacan who has seen everything.
A note on this passage
Two gestures settle the morning's real question. The whole assembly stares at the approaching prince — θηεῦντο, they ‘gazed,’ the verb of wonder — and then he sits in his father's chair and the elders make room. In a world where seats are status, the silent yielding is a vote: the house of Odysseus still holds its place.
Then Homer gives the floor first not to Telemachus but to an old man. Aegyptius is ‘bent with age’ and ‘knew countless things,’ the standard honour paid to an elder's long memory. The undercurrent is procedure: even a youth backed by a goddess must let the assembly run by its own rules, and the aged speak first. The scene is careful to show authority passing in order, not seized.
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