Odyssey 2.58 · Book 2, lines 58–60
No man left to guard the door
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μαψιδίως· τὰ δὲ πολλὰ κατάνεται. οὐ γὰρ ἔπʼ ἀνήρ, οἷος Ὀδυσσεὺς ἔσκεν, ἀρὴν ἀπὸ οἴκου ἀμῦναι· ἡμεῖς δʼ οὔ νύ τι τοῖοι ἀμυνέμεν· ἦ καὶ ἔπειτα
recklessly; and much of the goods is being consumed. For there is no man here such as Odysseus was, to ward off ruin from the house; and we are in no way such as to ward it off; truly, even hereafter—
Word by word
The setting
The speech reaches its point and breaks off. The wealth is wasted for nothing; there is no man like Odysseus left to drive ruin from the house — and Telemachus confesses he himself is not yet that man. The line runs on, unfinished, toward what he cannot yet say.
A note on this passage
The speech arrives at its point: the waste is for nothing, and there is no one left who could stop it. Telemachus measures the house against the absent Odysseus, and then against himself — and admits he is not yet the man who could ward off its ruin.
The undercurrent is that the speech breaks on his own weakness. ἀρή, 'ruin,' is exactly the doom a strong lord keeps from his threshold; the boy confesses the threshold now stands unguarded. The half-line 'and even hereafter—' trails off toward a threat, or a surrender, he cannot yet finish; in a moment he will dash the staff to the ground and burst into tears. Naming his own inadequacy aloud is, itself, the first act of the man he is beginning to become.
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