Odyssey 4.252 · Book 4, lines 252–256
An oath sworn, a plan told
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δή μιν ἐγὼ λόεον καὶ χρῖον ἐλαίῳ, ἀμφὶ δὲ εἵματα ἕσσα καὶ ὤμοσα καρτερὸν ὅρκον μὴ μὲν πρὶν Ὀδυσῆα μετὰ Τρώεσσʼ ἀναφῆναι, πρίν γε τὸν ἐς νῆάς τε θοὰς κλισίας τʼ ἀφικέσθαι, καὶ τότε δή μοι πάντα νόον κατέλεξεν Ἀχαιῶν.
But when at last I bathed him and anointed him with oil, and put clothes about him, and swore a strong oath not to reveal Odysseus among the Trojans until he reached the swift ships and the huts — then at last he told me the whole plan of the Achaeans.
Word by word
The setting
Helen recounts what happened once she saw through the disguise: she takes the beggar in, tends him as a guest, and binds herself by oath before he will speak. The 'huts' are the shelters of the Greek camp on the Trojan shore.
A note on this passage
This is a guest-welcome, performed by the enemy's wife for the enemy's spy. Helen bathes, anoints, and clothes him — the fixed sequence of hospitality — and adds an oath of silence. Only when she has bound herself does he trust her with the Greek plan. Care first, then confidence.
The undercurrent is that the whole ritual of xenia is here turned into an instrument of treason against the household she lives in. Every gesture is correct, and every gesture serves Troy's fall. The scene shows Helen behaving, in the middle of Troy, exactly as a loyal Greek hostess would — and it is precisely her fidelity to that Greek code that makes her, to the Trojans, a traitor in their midst.
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