Odyssey 4.447 · Book 4, lines 447–450
The seals, and the Old Man at noon
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πᾶσαν δʼ ἠοίην μένομεν τετληότι θυμῷ· φῶκαι δʼ ἐξ ἁλὸς ἦλθον ἀολλέες. αἱ μὲν ἔπειτα ἑξῆς εὐνάζοντο παρὰ ῥηγμῖνι θαλάσσης· ἔνδιος δʼ ὁ γέρων ἦλθʼ ἐξ ἁλός, εὗρε δὲ φώκας
All the morning we waited with enduring heart; and the seals came from the sea in throngs. Then they lay down in order along the surf of the sea; and at midday the old man came out of the sea and found his seals.
Word by word
The setting
The trap is set and holds. The men wait out the morning under the skins until the seals haul out of the water and, at last, their master comes up from the sea.
A note on this passage
The waiting pays off. All morning the men lie still; then the seals haul out of the water in a mass and settle in rows along the surf, and at noon their herdsman rises from the sea and finds his flock. The marvel arrives on an ordinary rhythm.
The undercurrent is one phrase: τετληότι θυμῷ, 'with enduring heart.' That verb of endurance, τλῆναι, is the Odyssey's keyword — the thing that names Odysseus himself, the man who holds on. Here it is lent to Menelaus's crew in a smaller test, holding their nerve under the skins. And the god of the sea, for all his terror, comes home like any shepherd counting sheep at midday.
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