Odyssey 3.43 · Book 3, lines 43–45
'Pray to Poseidon, stranger'
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Peisistratus — εὔχεο νῦν, ὦ ξεῖνε, Ποσειδάωνι ἄνακτι· τοῦ γὰρ καὶ δαίτης ἠντήσατε δεῦρο μολόντες. αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν σπείσῃς τε καὶ εὔξεαι, ἣ θέμις ἐστί,
Pray now, stranger, to the lord Poseidon; for it is his feast that you have chanced upon in coming here. But when you have poured libation and prayed, as is right,
Word by word
The setting
Peisistratus, cup in hand, speaks to the elder guest (Athena as Mentor). The feast is Poseidon's own sacrifice, so the god must be prayed to first. θέμις is the word for what is divinely right and established.
A note on this passage
A young host instructs a guest in the proper order of things. This is Poseidon's sacrifice, so Poseidon is prayed to first; only then does the cup pass on. Peisistratus lays out the sequence plainly and courteously, ending on θέμις — the word for what is simply right, the way things are established to be done.
The irony deepens. A boy is teaching the goddess of wisdom how to pray, and telling Athena to address Poseidon — the very god who is Odysseus's enemy and the obstacle to the homecoming she is working to secure. She will do it, graciously, because the code of the feast outranks the quarrel of the gods. Even a divinity honors θέμις at a stranger's table.
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