Odyssey 3.459 · Book 3, lines 459–463
The old man burns the god's portion
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καῖε δʼ ἐπὶ σχίζῃς ὁ γέρων, ἐπὶ δʼ αἴθοπα οἶνον λεῖβε· νέοι δὲ παρʼ αὐτὸν ἔχον πεμπώβολα χερσίν. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κατὰ μῆρʼ ἐκάη καὶ σπλάγχνα πάσαντο, μίστυλλόν τʼ ἄρα τἆλλα καὶ ἀμφʼ ὀβελοῖσιν ἔπειραν, ὤπτων δʼ ἀκροπόρους ὀβελοὺς ἐν χερσὶν ἔχοντες.
And the old man burned them on the split wood, and over them poured gleaming wine; and beside him the young men held five-pronged forks in their hands. But when the thigh-pieces were burned up and they had tasted the innards, they cut up the rest and pierced it on spits, and roasted it, holding the pointed spits in their hands.
Word by word
The setting
The fat-wrapped thigh-pieces are ready for the fire. Nestor himself tends the altar-flame with wine, the young men standing by with roasting-forks; then, the god's share consumed, the company turns the rest of the meat on spits.
A note on this passage
The altar-work is Nestor's own: the old king lays the fat-wrapped thighs on the kindling and feeds the flame with a libation of bright wine while his sons stand ready with forks. Once the god's portion is ash and the tasters have sampled the innards, the sacred act shades directly into dinner — the rest of the beast is spitted and roasted.
The touch worth noticing is who does what. That Nestor himself tends the fire, rather than a servant, marks the sacrifice as the host's personal offering on his guest's behalf — the same lavish courtesy that has framed Telemachus's whole reception at Pylos. Homeric piety and Homeric hospitality are one gesture: to honor the god and to honor the stranger are done at the same fire, with the same care.
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