Odyssey 2.278 · Book 2, lines 278–280
Your father's cunning has not left you
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ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ οὐδʼ ὄπιθεν κακὸς ἔσσεαι οὐδʼ ἀνοήμων, οὐδέ σε πάγχυ γε μῆτις Ὀδυσσῆος προλέλοιπεν, ἐλπωρή τοι ἔπειτα τελευτῆσαι τάδε ἔργα.
But since you will be neither base hereafter nor witless, nor has Odysseus's cunning wholly forsaken you, then there is hope you will accomplish these deeds.
Word by word
The setting
The conditional turns in Telemachus's favor. Athena declares him no coward and no fool, and heir to the one gift that defined Odysseus — his cunning intelligence.
A note on this passage
The condition resolves: Athena affirms the son is neither coward nor fool, so the venture can succeed. The three negatives clear the ground, and hope stands where doubt was.
The hinge is a single word — μῆτις, the ‘cunning’ of Odysseus. This, not muscle, is the father's signature excellence, the resourceful intelligence that names him πολύμητις and wins by wit where force fails. Athena presents it as inheritable, passing not through the arm but through the mind. The gift that outlasted Troy has, she says, not deserted the son.
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