Odyssey 3.141 · Book 3, lines 141–144
Sail now, or stay and sacrifice
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ἔνθʼ ἤ τοι Μενέλαος ἀνώγει πάντας Ἀχαιοὺς νόστου μιμνήσκεσθαι ἐπʼ εὐρέα νῶτα θαλάσσης οὐδʼ Ἀγαμέμνονι πάμπαν ἑήνδανε· βούλετο γάρ ῥα λαὸν ἐρυκακέειν ῥέξαι θʼ ἱερὰς ἑκατόμβας,
Then indeed Menelaus urged all the Achaeans to turn their minds to return over the broad back of the sea; but this did not please Agamemnon at all, for he wished to hold the host back and offer holy hecatombs,
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The setting
At the ruinous assembly the two brothers divide openly: Menelaus for sailing home at once, Agamemnon for staying to appease the goddess with sacrifice.
A note on this passage
The split comes into the open. Menelaus tells the army to sail — to fix its mind on the homeward voyage across the wide sea. Agamemnon flatly refuses: he wants to keep the men there and offer great sacrifices first.
The irony is sharp and deliberate. It is Agamemnon, the one urging piety, whose choice is the doomed one — and the audience, and Nestor's listener Telemachus, already know how Agamemnon's homecoming ends: murdered at his own hearth. The formula ‘the broad back of the sea’ opens the road that will scatter the fleet. Nestor lays the fork of the road plainly, and lets the wrongheaded, pious-looking option belong to the king who will pay most.
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Odyssey 3.141 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.141/