Odyssey 4.216 · Book 4, lines 216–218
The squire pours the water
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ὣς ἔφατʼ, Ἀσφαλίων δʼ ἄρʼ ὕδωρ ἐπὶ χεῖρας ἔχευεν, ὀτρηρὸς θεράπων Μενελάου κυδαλίμοιο. οἱ δʼ ἐπʼ ὀνείαθʼ ἑτοῖμα προκείμενα χεῖρας ἴαλλον.
So he spoke, and Asphalion poured water over their hands, the ready squire of glorious Menelaus. And they put their hands to the food set ready before them.
Word by word
The setting
Menelaus has broken off the weeping and called the company back to supper. A brief feast-formula follows before Helen acts.
A note on this passage
A feast-formula does its ordinary work: a servant pours the washing-water, and the guests reach for the food already laid before them. The line names the squire, Asphalion — a figure who appears nowhere else — and gives Menelaus his fixed epithet, 'glorious.'
The formula is not filler here. It shows a house in order: a named servant, a rite performed on cue, a table restored. Set against Ithaca, where the suitors devour a home with no master to command it, Sparta's smooth hospitality is a picture of everything Odysseus's hall has lost.
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Odyssey 4.216 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/4.216/