Odyssey 3.473 · Book 3, lines 473–474
Desire for food put away
Read the full text in our reader
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος ἐξ ἔρον ἕντο, τοῖσι δὲ μύθων ἦρχε Γερήνιος ἱππότα Νέστωρ·
But when they had put from them the desire for drink and food, among them the Gerenian horseman Nestor began to speak:
Word by word
The setting
The meal ends with the standard Homeric formula for satisfied hunger. Then the old king takes up the word to arrange his guest's onward journey to Sparta.
A note on this passage
A single formulaic couplet does the work of a scene change. The line ‘when they had put from them the desire for food and drink’ is Homer's standard signal that the eating is over and words may begin — the hinge on which countless feasts turn into councils.
The undercurrent is the epithet. ‘Gerenian horseman Nestor’ is the old king's full name-tag, sounded here as he opens his mouth, and it does more than fill the meter: it reasserts his identity as the seasoned commander and charioteer just as he takes charge of the practical business — yoking a team for the road. The formula that names him is also the formula that authorizes him to give the orders that follow.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 3.473 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 3.473 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.473/