Odyssey 3.346 · Book 3, lines 346–350
'As if from some poor man' — Nestor's protest
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Nestor — Ζεὺς τό γʼ ἀλεξήσειε καὶ ἀθάνατοι θεοὶ ἄλλοι, ὡς ὑμεῖς παρʼ ἐμεῖο θοὴν ἐπὶ νῆα κίοιτε ὥς τέ τευ ἦ παρὰ πάμπαν ἀνείμονος ἠδὲ πενιχροῦ, ᾧ οὔ τι χλαῖναι καὶ ῥήγεα πόλλʼ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ, οὔτʼ αὐτῷ μαλακῶς οὔτε ξείνοισιν ἐνεύδειν.
May Zeus ward that off, and the other immortal gods, that you should go from me to your swift ship, as though from some utterly cloakless and poor man, one who has no cloaks and rugs aplenty in his house, neither for himself to sleep soft, nor for guests.
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The setting
Nestor speaks. He casts his refusal as a prayer that Zeus forbid such a thing: for his guests to sleep by their ship would make him look like a destitute man with no cloaks or rugs to offer — a public shame in the honor-culture where a house is judged by its hospitality.
A note on this passage
Nestor answers with a small burst of indignation, framed as a prayer: Zeus forbid that guests leave his house to sleep on the ship. He turns the insult over — as if he were some pauper with no bedding, no comfort for himself or a visitor.
The undercurrent is the economy of honor. In Homer, a house is measured by what it can give: cloaks, rugs, a soft bed for a stranger. To send guests to the shore would advertise poverty and shame Nestor before the gods he names. Hospitality here is not warmth alone but status, publicly performed — the same code the suitors are trampling back in Ithaca.
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