Odyssey 4.611 · Book 4, lines 611–614
'You are of good blood'
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Menelaus — αἵματός εἰς ἀγαθοῖο, φίλον τέκος, οἷʼ ἀγορεύεις· τοιγὰρ ἐγώ τοι ταῦτα μεταστήσω· δύναμαι γάρ. δώρων δʼ ὅσσʼ ἐν ἐμῷ οἴκῳ κειμήλια κεῖται, δώσω ὃ κάλλιστον καὶ τιμηέστατόν ἐστιν·
You are of good blood, dear child, by what you say. So then, for you I will change these gifts, for I am able. Of all the gifts that lie as treasures in my house, I will give the one that is finest and most precious.
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The setting
Menelaus answers. He recognizes the father in the son's very speech, agrees to exchange the gift for a fitting one, and promises the finest treasure in his house.
A note on this passage
Menelaus grants the request at once. He hears nobility in the way the boy has spoken — 'you are of good blood' — and takes it as proof of breeding; he will swap the horses for a gift Ithaca can use, and not a small one, but the best thing his house holds.
The compliment is really recognition. Menelaus keeps seeing Odysseus in this son, and the aristocratic logic of blood lets him say so: good speech reveals good stock. Xenia runs on exactly this reading of a guest — you measure the man, then you measure the gift to the man. Having taken Telemachus for his father's true heir, Menelaus answers with his finest treasure.
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