Odyssey 3.49 · Book 3, lines 49–50

Peisistratus closes his speech with the reason for his order of service. The second guest is a young man like himself; the elder, therefore, is honored first with the golden cup. A small, exact point of etiquette, stated without fuss.

Under the courtesy runs the Greek grammar of age and honor. Precedence is owed to the elder, and the young defer as a matter of course — the same order that structures the whole household Telemachus has come to see. That the 'elder' is in fact a goddess makes the deference land twice: Peisistratus honors seniority correctly and, by luck of the disguise, honors divinity. Good form and true reverence coincide, which is exactly how the poem believes the world should run.

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