Odyssey 2.337 · Book 2, lines 337–339
Down into the storeroom
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ὣς φάν, ὁ δʼ ὑψόροφον θάλαμον κατεβήσετο πατρὸς εὐρύν, ὅθι νητὸς χρυσὸς καὶ χαλκὸς ἔκειτο ἐσθής τʼ ἐν χηλοῖσιν ἅλις τʼ ἐυῶδες ἔλαιον·
So they spoke; but he went down into his father's storeroom, high-roofed and wide, where heaped gold and bronze lay, and clothing in chests, and fragrant oil in plenty.
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The setting
The scene turns from the hall. Telemachus goes down into the treasury of the house — his father's high-roofed storeroom, packed with gold, bronze, clothing and oil.
A note on this passage
The scene drops from the loud hall to a quiet room below: the θάλαμος, the storeroom where a great house keeps its wealth — gold and bronze in heaps, clothing folded in chests, fragrant oil. Telemachus goes down alone.
It is his father's room — πατρὸς — and the possessive does quiet work. Everything here is what Odysseus amassed and what the suitors are draining upstairs; the boy walks into the intact core of the estate they are eating. Provisioning his voyage from this hoard, he acts for the first time as the household's steward rather than its victim, going down not to hide but to take what he needs.
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Odyssey 2.337 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/2.337/