Odyssey 3.184 · Book 3, lines 184–187
What is right to tell a guest
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ὣς ἦλθον, φίλε τέκνον, ἀπευθής, οὐδέ τι οἶδα κείνων, οἵ τʼ ἐσάωθεν Ἀχαιῶν οἵ τʼ ἀπόλοντο. ὅσσα δʼ ἐνὶ μεγάροισι καθήμενος ἡμετέροισι πεύθομαι, ἣ θέμις ἐστί, δαήσεαι, οὐδέ σε κεύσω.
So I came home, dear child, without news, nor do I know anything of those Achaeans — who were saved and who perished. But whatever I learn, sitting in our halls, you shall learn, as is right, nor will I hide it from you.
Word by word
The setting
Nestor, having described his own return, admits he sailed home with no news of the other Greek captains. Now he promises Telemachus everything he has since learned in Pylos.
A note on this passage
Nestor draws a line under his own tale and turns to Telemachus directly. He came back knowing nothing of how the other Greeks fared; but what has since reached him at home, he will pass on in full. It is a courteous hand-off from eyewitness to hearsay.
The quiet word here is θέμις — ‘what is right, what is owed.’ To tell a guest what one knows is not a favour but an obligation, part of the same law of hospitality that seated him at the feast. Nestor frames his coming report as a duty, and in doing so sets up the darker story he is about to tell.
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Odyssey 3.184 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.184/