Odyssey 2.301 · Book 2, lines 301–302
Antinous takes his hand
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Ἀντίνοος δʼ ἰθὺς γελάσας κίε Τηλεμάχοιο, ἔν τʼ ἄρα οἱ φῦ χειρί, ἔπος τʼ ἔφατʼ ἔκ τʼ ὀνόμαζε·
And Antinous, laughing, went straight up to Telemachus, and clung fast onto his hand, and spoke a word and called him by name:
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus has just demanded, before the assembly, a ship and crew to go seek news of his father. The suitor Antinous now steps up to him — with a laugh and a false-friendly clasp of the hand.
A note on this passage
The gesture is pure theater. Antinous laughs, walks straight up, and takes Telemachus by the hand — the fixed epic sign of good faith and welcome, the same clasp that seals a pledge. The formula of address (‘spoke a word and called him by name’) frames what will be a speech of mockery.
The undercurrent is the hand itself. φῦ χειρί, ‘he grew onto his hand,’ is the language of genuine attachment, here weaponized: the man eating the boy's house takes his hand like a friend. The whole machinery of φιλία is being turned into an insult before a word is spoken.
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