Odyssey 4.52 · Book 4, lines 52–54
Water poured, the table drawn up
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χέρνιβα δʼ ἀμφίπολος προχόῳ ἐπέχευε φέρουσα καλῇ χρυσείῃ ὑπὲρ ἀργυρέοιο λέβητος, νίψασθαι· παρὰ δὲ ξεστὴν ἐτάνυσσε τράπεζαν.
A handmaid poured washing-water from a pitcher, bearing it, a fair golden one, over a silver basin, for washing; and beside them she drew up a polished table.
Word by word
The setting
With the guests seated, the meal begins with the fixed ritual of hand-washing before food — lines that recur, almost word for word, at feasts all through the poem.
A note on this passage
These are among the most repeated lines in Homer: a servant pours water over the hands from a jug into a basin, then a table is set. The action is pure formula, the oral poet's ready-made way of opening any meal, and Homer does not vary the choreography.
What he varies is the metal. In a swineherd's hut the same rite is done with plain ware; here the pitcher is gold and the basin silver. The type-scene levels rich and poor — every proper host performs exactly these gestures — while the single word χρυσείῃ marks the gulf between them. The custom is shared; the wealth is Sparta's alone, and the poem lets both facts stand in one breath.
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