Odyssey 3.29 · Book 3, lines 29–30

A single sentence closes the beach scene: Athena finishes, moves off at speed, and Telemachus falls in behind her toward Nestor's company. It is standard connective verse, ushering the pair from ship to host.

But the poet lets the disguise slip in the last word. Telemachus follows 'in the footsteps of the god' — θεοῖο — not of Mentor, the old friend the boy believes he is trailing. Over his head the line tells the reader the plain truth: this is a god he walks behind, and to walk in a god's tracks is exactly what his coming-of-age will be.

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