Odyssey 4.26 · Book 4, lines 26–29
Eteoneus asks: take them in, or send them on?
Read the full text in our reader
Eteoneus — ξείνω δή τινε τώδε, διοτρεφὲς ὦ Μενέλαε, ἄνδρε δύω, γενεῇ δὲ Διὸς μεγάλοιο ἔικτον. ἀλλʼ εἴπʼ, ἤ σφωιν καταλύσομεν ὠκέας ἵππους, ἦ ἄλλον πέμπωμεν ἱκανέμεν, ὅς κε φιλήσῃ.
There are two strangers here, Zeus-nurtured Menelaus, two men, and in lineage they resemble great Zeus. But tell me: shall we unyoke for them their swift horses, or should we send them on to another to go to, whoever will befriend them?
Word by word
The setting
Eteoneus has come in to his master. This is his report and his question — the words a well-run household must resolve before a stranger is taken in.
A note on this passage
Eteoneus reports: two strangers are at the door, men who look in their very lineage like sons of great Zeus. Then he asks the fatal question — should they unyoke the guests' horses and take them in, or send them on to be entertained somewhere else?
The question itself is the flaw. To ask whether to receive a guest is already half a refusal, and Menelaus will rebuke it sharply. Eteoneus even names the strangers' Zeus-like bearing — Zeus being the god of guests — yet still hesitates. The scene measures Sparta's hospitality against Ithaca's, where strangers are neither turned away nor honored but simply preyed upon.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 4.26 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 4.26 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/4.26/