Odyssey 4.5 · Book 4, lines 5–9
The daughter sent to Achilles's son
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τὴν μὲν Ἀχιλλῆος ῥηξήνορος υἱέι πέμπεν· ἐν Τροίῃ γὰρ πρῶτον ὑπέσχετο καὶ κατένευσε δωσέμεναι, τοῖσιν δὲ θεοὶ γάμον ἐξετέλειον. τὴν ἄρʼ ὅ γʼ ἔνθʼ ἵπποισι καὶ ἅρμασι πέμπε νέεσθαι Μυρμιδόνων προτὶ ἄστυ περικλυτόν, οἷσιν ἄνασσεν.
Her he was sending to the son of Achilles, breaker-of-men; for in Troy he had first promised and nodded assent to give her, and the gods were bringing to pass their marriage for them. So then he sent her with horses and chariots to go to the famous city of the Myrmidons, over whom he ruled.
Word by word
The setting
Menelaus's household is mid-celebration. Homer breaks off to explain why: two marriages are being feasted at once. This first note concerns the daughter's match to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles.
A note on this passage
The poet pauses the arrival to explain the feast. Menelaus is sending his daughter to marry the son of Achilles, Neoptolemus, honoring a pledge he made back at Troy; the gods are seeing the match through to its end.
A vow sworn on the battlefield now comes due in peacetime. The detail binds Sparta to the whole war-generation: the daughter of Helen goes to the son of Achilles, one great house knitted to another by promises made amid the fighting. Marriage here is diplomacy and memory, not romance.
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