Odyssey 4.15 · Book 4, lines 15–19
The high hall at feast: bard and tumblers
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ὣς οἱ μὲν δαίνυντο καθʼ ὑψερεφὲς μέγα δῶμα γείτονες ἠδὲ ἔται Μενελάου κυδαλίμοιο, τερπόμενοι· μετὰ δέ σφιν ἐμέλπετο θεῖος ἀοιδὸς φορμίζων, δοιὼ δὲ κυβιστητῆρε κατʼ αὐτούς, μολπῆς ἐξάρχοντος, ἐδίνευον κατὰ μέσσους.
So they were feasting through the great high-roofed hall, the neighbors and kinsmen of glorious Menelaus, taking their delight; and among them a divine singer made music, playing the lyre, while two tumblers, among them, as the song led off, whirled through the midst.
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The setting
Having explained the double wedding, Homer returns to the feast itself, seen as the travelers would first glimpse it from the door.
A note on this passage
Back to the hall. The neighbors and kinsmen feast beneath the high roof, delighting in the day, while a divine bard sings to the lyre and two acrobats tumble through the middle of the floor as he strikes up the tune.
This is the picture of a house at its ease — song, dance, and plenty, the very life the suitors are counterfeiting back in Ithaca. Homer lets the reader stand at the threshold with the newcomers and see, for a moment, what a rightly ordered great house looks like before anyone has spoken.
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