Odyssey 2.402 · Book 2, lines 402–404
“Let us not delay”
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Athena (as Mentor) — Τηλέμαχʼ, ἤδη μέν τοι ἐυκνήμιδες ἑταῖροι ἥατʼ ἐπήρετμοι τὴν σὴν ποτιδέγμενοι ὁρμήν· ἀλλʼ ἴομεν, μὴ δηθὰ διατρίβωμεν ὁδοῖο.
Telemachus, already your well-greaved comrades sit at their oars, awaiting your setting-out; but let us go, let us not delay long on the journey.
Word by word
The setting
Athena, in Mentor's shape, speaks to Telemachus. The crew is already aboard and waiting; she urges him to move without wasting the day.
A note on this passage
The whole speech is a nudge to act. Athena reports that the rowers are already benched and only waiting on him, then turns it into a shared imperative — "let us go, let us not linger." The crew's readiness is quietly made into pressure: everyone is set, the delay would be his alone.
The undercurrent is Telemachus's coming-of-age tempo. Through Book 1 he was acted upon; here the goddess frames departure as something he and his comrades do together, and the plural verbs ("let us go") fold him into a company of grown men with a task. The heroic "well-greaved comrades" formula, borrowed from Iliadic warriors, dignifies a boy's first command as if it were an army's muster.
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