Odyssey 3.225 · Book 3, line 225
Telemachus answers in turn
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τὸν δʼ αὖ Τηλέμαχος πεπνυμένος ἀντίον ηὔδα·
Then wise Telemachus answered him in turn:
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The setting
A single-line reply formula, the poem's standard way of marking a change of speaker. It closes Nestor's speech and opens Telemachus's.
A note on this passage
The formulaic hinge that hands the floor from Nestor back to the young man: 'Then wise Telemachus answered him in turn.' The line carries the fixed epithet πεπνυμένος, 'of good sense,' fastened as always to Telemachus's name.
The formula does quiet character work. Telemachus wears the standing epithet of a prudent man in the very book where he first faces great strangers on his own. The verse is a nameplate the poem keeps polishing until the boy grows into it.
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