Odyssey 3.385 · Book 3, lines 385–390
Prayer heard; back to the palace and the wine-bowl
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ὣς ἔφατʼ εὐχόμενος, τοῦ δʼ ἔκλυε Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη. τοῖσιν δʼ ἡγεμόνευε Γερήνιος ἱππότα Νέστωρ, υἱάσι καὶ γαμβροῖσιν, ἑὰ πρὸς δώματα καλά. ἀλλʼ ὅτε δώμαθʼ ἵκοντο ἀγακλυτὰ τοῖο ἄνακτος, ἑξείης ἕζοντο κατὰ κλισμούς τε θρόνους τε· τοῖς δʼ ὁ γέρων ἐλθοῦσιν ἀνὰ κρητῆρα κέρασσεν
So he spoke in prayer, and Pallas Athena hearkened to him. And for them the Gerenian horseman Nestor led the way, his sons and sons-in-law, to his own fair house. But when they reached the glorious halls of that lord, they sat down in rows on chairs and thrones; and for them, now come, the old man mixed a bowl of wine.
Word by word
The setting
The prayer is answered and the scene moves indoors. Athena hears Nestor; the old king leads his household — sons and sons-in-law — home to his fine halls, where the company takes its seats and Nestor begins to mix the wine.
A note on this passage
Homer confirms the prayer in a single half-line — Athena heard him — and then lets the poem exhale into routine. Nestor gathers his large family and leads them home; they file in and sit in order on the household's chairs and thrones; the old man turns to the wine-bowl. The extraordinary sign resolves into the settled comfort of a great house at evening.
The undercurrent is how the epic manages intensity. A divine epiphany is not left ringing; it is absorbed into the type-scene of the feast, the poem's steadiest rhythm. The mixing of wine is both a real act of hospitality and a narrative signal that the marvel is over and ordinary life — orderly, seated, well-provisioned — has closed smoothly back over it.
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