Odyssey 4.438 · Book 4, lines 438–440
Bedded in the sand under the skins
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εὐνὰς δʼ ἐν ψαμάθοισι διαγλάψασʼ ἁλίῃσιν ἧστο μένουσʼ· ἡμεῖς δὲ μάλα σχεδὸν ἤλθομεν αὐτῆς· ἑξείης δʼ εὔνησε, βάλεν δʼ ἐπὶ δέρμα ἑκάστῳ.
She scooped out beds in the sea-sands and sat waiting; and we came very close to her. She bedded us down in a row, and threw a skin over each.
Word by word
The setting
Eidothea prepares the hiding place: she hollows out beds in the beach-sand, waits for the four men to come close, then lays them down and covers each with a seal-skin.
A note on this passage
The setup is done with a nurse's care. Eidothea digs four hollows in the wet sand, waits for the men to reach her, lays them out one beside the next, and pulls a seal-hide over each. Every verb is small and practical.
The undercurrent is the shape of the picture. Four men laid in rows in scooped-out beds of sand, covered over, holding still — it looks like a burial, and the word εὐνή, 'bed,' is the same one Homer uses for the marriage-bed and the grave alike. To take the sea-god's truth, the ambushers must first lie down like the dead and let themselves be covered.
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