Odyssey 4.294 · Book 4, lines 294–295
Turn us now to bed
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ἀλλʼ ἄγετʼ εἰς εὐνὴν τράπεθʼ ἡμέας, ὄφρα καὶ ἤδη ὕπνῳ ὕπο γλυκερῷ ταρπώμεθα κοιμηθέντες.
But come, turn us to bed, so that even now we may take our fill beneath sweet sleep, lulled to rest.
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The setting
Telemachus, having answered Menelaus, closes the long evening by asking, tactfully, to be sent to sleep.
A note on this passage
Telemachus ends the night gently. Rather than let the grief go on, he asks his host to have them shown to bed, so they can take the plain comfort of sweet sleep. It is a courteous exit from a conversation grown heavy with the dead.
The request is also a small assertion of the guest's own judgment. He has thanked the tales and felt their weight; now he closes them, choosing rest over more remembering — the same tact by which a good guest, like a good host, knows when enough has been said.
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