Odyssey 4.55 · Book 4, lines 55–58
The housekeeper and the carver
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σῖτον δʼ αἰδοίη ταμίη παρέθηκε φέρουσα εἴδατα πόλλʼ ἐπιθεῖσα, χαριζομένη παρεόντων. δαιτρὸς δὲ κρειῶν πίνακας παρέθηκεν ἀείρας παντοίων, παρὰ δέ σφι τίθει χρύσεια κύπελλα.
And the honored housekeeper brought bread and set it before them, laying on many dishes, giving freely of her store. And a carver lifted and set beside them platters of meats of every sort, and set golden cups by them.
Word by word
The setting
The service of the meal itself, each of the household's officers doing an appointed task: the storekeeper with the bread, the carver with the meat, the gold cups set out to drink from.
A note on this passage
The feast is served by a small, ordered staff, each with a title and a job: the ταμίη who guards and doles out the stores, the δαιτρός who carves and portions the meat. The house works by roles, and the poem names them, giving the meal the weight of an institution rather than a mere supper.
One phrase warms the formula: χαριζομένη παρεόντων, the housekeeper 'giving freely of what she had.' Generosity, not just plenty, is what hospitality asks — the willing hand as much as the full larder. And again the gold surfaces, in the cups this time. Sparta feeds its guests lavishly and without stint, the very abundance Odysseus's own house is being eaten out of, far away in Ithaca.
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