Odyssey 3.226 · Book 3, lines 226–228
That word is too great for hope
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Telemachus — ὦ γέρον, οὔ πω τοῦτο ἔπος τελέεσθαι ὀίω· λίην γὰρ μέγα εἶπες· ἄγη μʼ ἔχει. οὐκ ἂν ἐμοί γε ἐλπομένῳ τὰ γένοιτʼ, οὐδʼ εἰ θεοὶ ὣς ἐθέλοιεν.
O old man, I do not think at all this word will be fulfilled; for you have said too great a thing; amazement holds me. This could not, for me at least, even hoping, come to pass — not even if the gods should so will it.
Word by word
The setting
Telemachus answers Nestor's wish. Overwhelmed by the thought of his father returning to destroy the suitors, he calls it too much to hope for — beyond even what the gods could grant.
A note on this passage
Telemachus refuses the hope. He tells the old man plainly that he does not expect this word to come true: it is too great a thing to have said, and it leaves him stunned. Even wishing, he says, it could not happen — not even if the gods should will it.
A boy's honest despair set against the poem's certainty. The reader knows Odysseus is alive and on his way; Telemachus, sensibly, cannot believe it. His 'not even if the gods willed it' names exactly the limit the goddess beside him is about to overturn — the gap between mortal realism and what the gods have already settled.
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