Odyssey 3.380 · Book 3, lines 380–384
Nestor's vow: a gilded heifer
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ἀλλὰ ἄνασσʼ ἵληθι, δίδωθι δέ μοι κλέος ἐσθλόν, αὐτῷ καὶ παίδεσσι καὶ αἰδοίῃ παρακοίτι· σοὶ δʼ αὖ ἐγὼ ῥέξω βοῦν ἦνιν εὐρυμέτωπον ἀδμήτην, ἣν οὔ πω ὑπὸ ζυγὸν ἤγαγεν ἀνήρ· τήν τοι ἐγὼ ῥέξω χρυσὸν κέρασιν περιχεύας.
But be gracious, O queen, and grant me good renown, to myself and my children and my honored wife; and to you in turn I will sacrifice a broad-browed yearling heifer, unbroken, which no man has yet led beneath the yoke; her I will sacrifice to you, having overlaid her horns with gold.
Word by word
The setting
Recognition becomes prayer. Nestor turns from the boy to the goddess directly, asking her favor for his household and pledging, in return, a perfect sacrifice: a young heifer never yoked, its horns to be sheathed in gold for the offering.
A note on this passage
The old man prays in the plain grammar of Greek worship: a request paired with an offer. He asks Athena for good repute for himself, his children, and his wife, and he promises a heifer in exchange — one that has never worn a yoke, its horns to be gilded for the rite. Everything is specified because the specification is the piety.
The undercurrent is the shape of reciprocity, do ut des — 'I give so that you may give.' The animal's value is precise: unbroken, virgin to labor, dressed in gold, it is the costliest thing a herd-lord can render. Nestor answers a free divine visit with a debt he insists on paying, and the whole exchange runs on the same honor-economy of gift and return that governs guests and kings alike.
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