Odyssey 4.645 · Book 4, lines 645–647
Force, or a gift?
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καί μοι τοῦτʼ ἀγόρευσον ἐτήτυμον, ὄφρʼ ἐὺ εἰδῶ, ἤ σε βίῃ ἀέκοντος ἀπηύρα νῆα μέλαιναν, ἦε ἑκών οἱ δῶκας ἐπεὶ προσπτύξατο μύθῳ.
And declare this to me for a fact, so that I may know well, whether against your will he took by force your black ship, or you gave it willingly to him, when he entreated you with his words.
Word by word
The setting
Still pressing Noemon, Antinous demands the crucial fact about the ship itself: was it seized from Noemon by force against his will, or did he hand it over willingly when Telemachus asked?
A note on this passage
The alternatives Antinous poses are legal as much as factual: seizure by force is one kind of act, a freely given loan another. He needs to know whether Telemachus commandeered the ship — an outrage he could exploit — or was granted it, which would mean the boy has willing allies.
The question exposes Antinous's frame of mind. He cannot imagine Telemachus simply being helped; he reaches first for the story of theft. That instinct — to assume the worst of the boy and look for a grievance to use — is the same instinct that will harden, a few lines on, into a plan to kill him.
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