Odyssey 4.117 · Book 4, lines 117–120
Menelaus weighs how to respond
Read the full text in our reader
μερμήριξε δʼ ἔπειτα κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμόν, ἠέ μιν αὐτὸν πατρὸς ἐάσειε μνησθῆναι ἦ πρῶτʼ ἐξερέοιτο ἕκαστά τε πειρήσαιτο. ἧος ὁ ταῦθʼ ὥρμαινε κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμόν,
and then he pondered in mind and heart whether to let him recall his father himself, or first question him and make trial of each thing. While he pondered this in mind and heart,
Word by word
The setting
Having seen the boy weep, Menelaus deliberates how to answer — a moment of courteous hesitation before he decides.
A note on this passage
Menelaus deliberates: should he wait and let the young man speak of his father in his own time, or ask outright and test who he is? The scene freezes on the host's careful mind.
The paired phrase ‘in his mind and in his heart’ frames a real question of tact. Homeric hospitality has rules, and pressing a weeping guest breaks them; yet Menelaus wants to know. The sentence stops mid-thought — ‘while he pondered this’ — and the poem will resolve it not by his choosing but by an interruption, when Helen enters. The decision is taken out of his hands.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 4.117 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 4.117 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/4.117/