Odyssey 3.155 · Book 3, lines 155–158
The host divides in half
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ἡμίσεες δʼ ἄρα λαοὶ ἐρητύοντο μένοντες αὖθι παρʼ Ἀτρεΐδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι, ποιμένι λαῶν· ἡμίσεες δʼ ἀναβάντες ἐλαύνομεν· αἱ δὲ μάλʼ ὦκα ἔπλεον, ἐστόρεσεν δὲ θεὸς μεγακήτεα πόντον.
But half the host was held back, remaining there beside Agamemnon, son of Atreus, shepherd of the host; and half embarked and rowed away, and they, very swiftly, sailed; for a god smoothed the monster-teeming deep.
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The setting
As the ships are readied, the Greek army splits. One half stays on the beach at Troy with Agamemnon; the other half — Nestor's — puts to sea at once.
A note on this passage
The army comes apart. Half the host holds back on the beach with Agamemnon; half board and pull away, and a god flattens the sea so the ships run easily. For a moment the departure looks blessed — calm water, a quick start.
But the division is the wound. This is the point where the returns of the Greeks fork, each column drawn toward its own end, and to remain with Agamemnon is to be pulled into the slowest and darkest homecoming of all. Nestor, telling it years later to the son of the missing Odysseus, is quietly mapping how one war made many different roads home — and how few of them ran straight.
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