Odyssey 3.421 · Book 3, lines 421–424
Nestor dispatches the men
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ἀλλʼ ἄγʼ ὁ μὲν πεδίονδʼ ἐπὶ βοῦν, ἴτω, ὄφρα τάχιστα ἔλθῃσιν, ἐλάσῃ δὲ βοῶν ἐπιβουκόλος ἀνήρ· εἷς δʼ ἐπὶ Τηλεμάχου μεγαθύμου νῆα μέλαιναν πάντας ἰὼν ἑτάρους ἀγέτω, λιπέτω δὲ δύʼ οἴους·
But come: let one man go to the plain for an ox, so it may come quickly, and the herdsman drive the cattle; and let another go to great-hearted Telemachus's black ship, and lead all the comrades, but leave two alone.
Word by word
The setting
At Pylos, 'Mentor' has just vanished as a sea-eagle, and old Nestor knows he has been entertaining a goddess. Awed, he vows a heifer to Athena with gold-sheathed horns, and here issues the rapid commands to prepare the sacrifice. He is still speaking.
A note on this passage
Nestor is giving orders. The old king parcels out the work of the sacrifice in quick, exact commands: one man off to the plain to fetch the ox, another down to Telemachus's ship to bring up the whole crew, leaving only a two-man guard behind. It is pure logistics, a household mobilizing.
The lavishness answers a fright. Moments before, the disguised Athena rose from the hall as a sea-eagle, and Nestor understood he had been housing a god unawares. The gilded ox is a vow paid in gold — the careful, almost anxious piety of an old man toward a divinity who has just brushed against his roof.
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