Odyssey 3.61 · Book 3, lines 61–64
The prayer sealed, the cup goes round
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οὕνεκα δεῦρʼ ἱκόμεσθα θοῇ σὺν νηὶ μελαίνῃ. ὣς ἄρʼ ἔπειτʼ ἠρᾶτο καὶ αὐτὴ πάντα τελεύτα. δῶκε δὲ Τηλεμάχῳ καλὸν δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον· ὣς δʼ αὔτως ἠρᾶτο Ὀδυσσῆος φίλος υἱός.
‘…because we came here with a swift, black ship.’ So then she prayed, and she herself was bringing all to fulfillment. And she gave Telemachus the fair two-handled cup; and in like manner prayed the dear son of Odysseus.
Word by word
The setting
Athena, disguised as Mentor, has been praying to Poseidon on the Pylian shore; here her prayer closes. She quietly brings it all to pass, hands Telemachus the two-handled cup, and the young man prays in his turn.
A note on this passage
The scene is the close of a prayer and the sharing of a cup. Athena, still wearing Mentor's shape, finishes her petition to Poseidon; then the narrator notes, almost in passing, that she herself was bringing it all to pass. The fine two-handled cup goes to Telemachus, and the boy prays as the elder did.
The quiet thing is who is praying to whom. A goddess in disguise asks Poseidon for good things — and then fulfills the request with her own hand. Homer lets the reader see both layers at once: the human rite on the beach and the divine power working inside it. And the cup passed to Telemachus is not mere courtesy; it draws the fatherless boy into the men's ritual, one more step in the growing-up the book is quietly staging.
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