Odyssey 3.418 · Book 3, lines 418–420
'Fulfill my wish — I must honor Athena first'
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Nestor — καρπαλίμως μοι, τέκνα φίλα, κρηήνατʼ ἐέλδωρ, ὄφρʼ ἦ τοι πρώτιστα θεῶν ἱλάσσομʼ Ἀθήνην, ἥ μοι ἐναργὴς ἦλθε θεοῦ ἐς δαῖτα θάλειαν.
Quickly, my dear children, fulfill my desire, so that first of the gods I may propitiate Athena, who came to me visible and clear at the god's rich feast.
Word by word
The setting
Nestor speaks. His first words are an order to his sons: move quickly, so that he may honor Athena before any other god — for she appeared to him in visible form at the previous day's feast. This sets in motion the gilding of the heifer's horns and its sacrifice.
A note on this passage
Nestor's speech opens with a command, not a greeting: quickly, children, do what I want. His wish is a sacrifice — to propitiate Athena before any other god, because she came to him plainly at yesterday's feast on the shore.
Everything turns on one word, enargḗs, 'in visible form.' Gods in Homer usually move disguised; Nestor is sure he saw one undisguised, and that certainty is what makes the honor urgent — a manifest god must be repaid at once, and richly. The scene's quiet irony is for the reader alone: the guest seated among the sons is the very person Athena came for, and he watches a whole house scramble to thank his own hidden protector.
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