Odyssey 3.271 · Book 3, lines 271–275
Aegisthus gives thanks
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Nestor — κάλλιπεν οἰωνοῖσιν ἕλωρ καὶ κύρμα γενέσθαι, τὴν δʼ ἐθέλων ἐθέλουσαν ἀνήγαγεν ὅνδε δόμονδε. πολλὰ δὲ μηρίʼ ἔκηε θεῶν ἱεροῖς ἐπὶ βωμοῖς, πολλὰ δʼ ἀγάλματʼ ἀνῆψεν, ὑφάσματά τε χρυσόν τε, ἐκτελέσας μέγα ἔργον, ὃ οὔ ποτε ἔλπετο θυμῷ.
He left him for the birds to become prey and spoil, and he, willing, led her, willing, to his own home. He burned many thigh-pieces on the holy altars of the gods, and hung up many offerings, both woven stuffs and gold, having accomplished a great deed, which he never hoped for in his heart.
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The setting
Nestor, recounting the returns from Troy, has just told how Aegisthus marooned Agamemnon's loyal bard on a desert island. Now he brings the usurper to the height of his triumph — taking the queen, the palace, and giving thanks to the gods — before the vengeance already foretold.
A note on this passage
Nestor finishes the tale of Aegisthus at its peak of success. The usurper takes Agamemnon's queen and his palace, and — the murder done — burns thigh-bones on the gods' altars and hangs the halls with tapestry and gold in thanksgiving. The verse lets him win completely before the reckoning it has already named.
The undercurrent is the piety. Aegisthus thanks the very gods who, through Orestes, will kill him, and Nestor calls the murder 'a great deed he never hoped to accomplish' — the flat, elated phrasing of the man himself. The poem holds the criminal's triumph and his doom in one breath, the same double vision it trained on 'blameless' Aegisthus in Book 1.
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