Odyssey 4.587 · Book 4, lines 587–592
Stay, and take these gifts
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ἀλλʼ ἄγε νῦν ἐπίμεινον ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἐμοῖσιν, ὄφρα κεν ἑνδεκάτη τε δυωδεκάτη τε γένηται· καὶ τότε σʼ εὖ πέμψω, δώσω δέ τοι ἀγλαὰ δῶρα, τρεῖς ἵππους καὶ δίφρον ἐύξοον· αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα δώσω καλὸν ἄλεισον, ἵνα σπένδῃσθα θεοῖσιν ἀθανάτοις ἐμέθεν μεμνημένος ἤματα πάντα.
But come now, stay in my halls, until the eleventh and twelfth day comes; and then I'll send you on your way well, and give you splendid gifts — three horses and a polished chariot; and after that I will give a fair cup, that you may pour libations to the immortal gods, remembering me all your days.
Word by word
The setting
His story done, Menelaus urges Telemachus to linger at Sparta and promises a rich send-off: horses, a chariot, and a libation cup to remember him by. The high courtesy of guest-friendship.
A note on this passage
Menelaus turns from his tale to his guest. The invitation is lavish and specific: stay nearly two weeks, then take a proper send-off with splendid gifts — three horses, a fine chariot, and a wrought cup. This is xenia at its most generous, a host loading his visitor with treasure and a warm insistence that he not rush off.
The undercurrent is the shape of the gift. The cup is for pouring libations to the gods, ‘remembering me all your days’ — a present engineered to keep the giver in the receiver's ritual life forever. Homeric gifts are never only objects; they are relationships made to outlast the visit. And the horses, kindly meant, will draw the one demur Telemachus is about to make: rocky Ithaca is no country for chariots.
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