Odyssey 2.260 · Book 2, lines 260–261
Telemachus prays at the shore
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Τηλέμαχος δʼ ἀπάνευθε κιὼν ἐπὶ θῖνα θαλάσσης, χεῖρας νιψάμενος πολιῆς ἁλὸς εὔχετʼ Ἀθήνῃ·
But Telemachus, going off apart to the shore of the sea, having washed his hands in the grey brine, prayed to Athena:
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Alone now, Telemachus leaves the town and goes down to the sea to pray to the goddess who visited him the day before, disguised as the stranger Mentes.
A note on this passage
Telemachus turns from the failed assembly to the one help that has actually answered him. He walks apart to the shore, washes his hands in the grey sea — the ritual cleansing before prayer — and calls on Athena. The public arena gave him nothing; he takes his need to the water's edge and a god.
The undercurrent is the quiet grammar of Homeric prayer. Clean hands, open sea, the deity's name: the boy does everything in order, and the order matters. Where the suitors abuse the forms of hospitality, Telemachus keeps the forms of piety exactly — and it is he, not they, whom a god is about to walk toward.
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