Odyssey 4.417 · Book 4, lines 417–420
Through beast, water, and fire — hold fast
Read the full text in our reader
πάντα δὲ γιγνόμενος πειρήσεται ὅσσʼ ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἑρπετὰ γίγνονται, καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ θεσπιδαὲς πῦρ· ὑμεῖς δʼ ἀστεμφέως ἐχέμεν μᾶλλόν τε πιέζειν. ἀλλʼ ὅτε κεν δή σʼ αὐτὸς ἀνείρηται ἐπέεσσι,
And he will try you, becoming all things, all that come to be upon the earth — creeping things, and water, and blazing fire; but you, unflinchingly, hold him fast and press him the harder. But when at last he himself questions you with words,
Word by word
The setting
Eidothea's final warning before the sign to release him: once seized, Proteus will change into every shape on earth to break the grip, and the men must only cling harder until he gives up and speaks.
A note on this passage
The famous metamorphosis. Held down, Proteus will run through every form there is — creeping beast, running water, blazing fire — trying to terrify the grip loose. The single instruction is to refuse: hold on unflinchingly and press even harder, until the shapes give out and the god himself, beaten, opens his mouth to ask who dares.
This is the source of the word 'protean,' but the point is not the spectacle. Truth is kept only by not letting go through the whole ordeal of fear — the same endurance that names Odysseus πολύτλας, 'much-suffering.' The god yields to the one who will not release him. The sentence breaks off mid-turn, the old man still shifting, on the very edge of speech.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 4.417 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 4.417 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/4.417/