Odyssey 2.31 · Book 2, lines 31–34
The old man's blessing on a stranger
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Aegyptius — ἥν χʼ ἡμῖν σάφα εἴποι, ὅτε πρότερός γε πύθοιτο; ἦέ τι δήμιον ἄλλο πιφαύσκεται ἠδʼ ἀγορεύει; ἐσθλός μοι δοκεῖ εἶναι, ὀνήμενος. εἴθε οἱ αὐτῷ Ζεὺς ἀγαθὸν τελέσειεν, ὅτι φρεσὶν ᾗσι μενοινᾷ.
—which he might tell us clearly, once he had learned it first? Or does he make known and declare some other public matter? He seems to me to be a good man—a blessing on him. Would that Zeus accomplish good for him himself, whatever he longs for in his own heart.
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The setting
The aged lord Aegyptius, first to speak in this assembly — the first held on Ithaca since Odysseus sailed — finishes his question: has the man who summoned them heard news of the army's return, or some other public business? Not knowing the summoner is Telemachus, he blesses him.
A note on this passage
Aegyptius closes his speech. He has asked whether the man who called this first assembly in twenty years brings word of the returning host or some other public cause — and, not knowing it is Telemachus, prays that Zeus grant the summoner whatever he desires.
The undercurrent is dramatic irony aimed at the old man himself. His courtesy blesses the very speaker whose 'business' is the ruin of Odysseus's house — and whose deepest wish, if Zeus granted it, would be the death of the suitors, among whom sits Aegyptius's own son Eurynomus. And his words are a trap laid for himself: Telemachus will pick up these same lines and turn them, one by one, to his own grief.
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