Odyssey 3.221 · Book 3, lines 221–224
I never saw a god stand so openly by a man
Read the full text in our reader
οὐ γάρ πω ἴδον ὧδε θεοὺς ἀναφανδὰ φιλεῦντας, ὡς κείνῳ ἀναφανδὰ παρίστατο Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη— εἴ σʼ οὕτως ἐθέλοι φιλέειν κήδοιτό τε θυμῷ, τῶ κέν τις κείνων γε καὶ ἐκλελάθοιτο γάμοιο.
for never yet have I seen the gods so openly loving a man, as Pallas Athena stood openly by him — if she were willing to love you thus and care for you in her heart, then some of those men might well forget marriage.
Word by word
The setting
Nestor interrupts his own wish with an aside: the favor Athena showed Odysseus at Troy was extraordinary, a god visibly at a mortal's side. If she gave Telemachus the like, the suitors' hopes of marriage would collapse.
A note on this passage
Nestor breaks off his own sentence to press the point: never in his life has he seen a god love a mortal as openly as Pallas stood by Odysseus. If she would care for Telemachus like that, some of the suitors would forget the marriage altogether.
The dramatic irony deepens. Nestor calls Athena's open favor a rare marvel — while she sits at the table wearing another man's face. And 'forget marriage' is a mild phrase for the poem's real ending: the suitors will not be talked out of the courtship. They will be killed out of it.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 3.221 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 3.221 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.221/