Odyssey 2.405 · Book 2, lines 405–409
Down to the ship
Read the full text in our reader
ὣς ἄρα φωνήσασʼ ἡγήσατο Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη καρπαλίμως· ὁ δʼ ἔπειτα μετʼ ἴχνια βαῖνε θεοῖο. αὐτὰρ ἐπεί ῥʼ ἐπὶ νῆα κατήλυθον ἠδὲ θάλασσαν, εὗρον ἔπειτʼ ἐπὶ θινὶ κάρη κομόωντας ἑταίρους. τοῖσι δὲ καὶ μετέειφʼ ἱερὴ ἲς Τηλεμάχοιο·
So speaking, Pallas Athena led the way swiftly; and he then walked after the footsteps of the goddess. But when they had come down to the ship and the sea, they then found on the shore their long-haired comrades. And among them spoke the sacred might of Telemachus:
Word by word
The setting
Athena finishes speaking and moves; Telemachus follows in her steps. They come down to the shore where the ship lies, find the waiting crew, and Telemachus prepares to give his orders.
A note on this passage
Motion and arrival, handled in formula: the goddess leads, the youth treads in her tracks, and they reach ship and sea to find the crew already on the beach. The picture of Telemachus stepping literally in the god's footprints is the book's argument in miniature — he goes where she has gone first.
The undercurrent is the grand epithet that closes the passage. Telemachus is named not plainly but as "the sacred might of Telemachus" — a periphrasis Homer reserves for real heroes, standing in for the man as if his very strength could speak. On a boy who has only just found his voice, the formula is half a promise: the epic is already dressing him in the language of the men he means to become.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 2.405 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 2.405 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/2.405/