Odyssey 3.391 · Book 3, lines 391–394
An eleven-year wine, poured to Athena
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οἴνου ἡδυπότοιο, τὸν ἑνδεκάτῳ ἐνιαυτῷ ὤιξεν ταμίη καὶ ἀπὸ κρήδεμνον ἔλυσε· τοῦ ὁ γέρων κρητῆρα κεράσσατο, πολλὰ δʼ Ἀθήνῃ εὔχετʼ ἀποσπένδων, κούρῃ Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο.
The jar of sweet wine — which the housekeeper opened in the eleventh year and loosed its seal — from it the old man mixed a bowl, and earnestly to Athena he prayed, pouring a libation to the daughter of Zeus who bears the aegis.
Word by word
The setting
The day's long sacrifice and Nestor's tales of the returns from Troy are done. As the evening closes, Nestor mixes a last bowl of his oldest wine and pours the opening libation to Athena, the goddess who (he now knows) visited his hearth in disguise.
A note on this passage
The long day of sacrifice and story ends in a last act of piety. Nestor has the steward open a wine sealed eleven years, mixes the bowl himself, and pours the first drops to Athena before anyone drinks.
The detail that carries the weight is the vintage's age. A jar kept shut for eleven years is the house's treasure, and it is broached not for the guest but for the god — the first libation, poured to Athena, whom Nestor now knows walked among them. In this world the best thing a household owns is spent upward, on the divine; the guest is honored by being made a witness to that piety.
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