Odyssey 4.652 · Book 4, lines 652–656
Mentor at the helm — or a god
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κοῦροι δʼ, οἳ κατὰ δῆμον ἀριστεύουσι μεθʼ ἡμέας, οἵ οἱ ἕποντʼ· ἐν δʼ ἀρχὸν ἐγὼ βαίνοντʼ ἐνόησα Μέντορα, ἠὲ θεόν, τῷ δʼ αὐτῷ πάντα ἐῴκει. ἀλλὰ τὸ θαυμάζω· ἴδον ἐνθάδε Μέντορα δῖον χθιζὸν ὑπηοῖον, τότε δʼ ἔμβη νηὶ Πύλονδε.
The young men who are the best in the land among us, these followed him; and I marked, going aboard as leader, Mentor — or a god, who in all things was just like him. But this I marvel at: I saw noble Mentor here yesterday at dawn, yet then he boarded the ship for Pylos.
Word by word
The setting
Noemon goes on: the crew were the finest young men of the district, and the leader who went aboard looked exactly like Mentor, Odysseus's old friend. Then comes the detail that unsettles him — he is sure he saw Mentor in town only the day before.
A note on this passage
Noemon's answer settles Antinous's questions and adds one he did not ask. The crew were the district's best, so Telemachus does have standing; and their leader was Mentor, Odysseus's trusted old friend, the natural guardian to steady the voyage.
But Noemon has caught, without understanding it, the seam where a god slips into the story. It was Athena in Mentor's shape who sailed; the real Mentor was still in Ithaca. Noemon reports the contradiction as a small marvel — 'yet I saw him here' — and moves on. The reader knows what he cannot: a goddess is steering the boy, and the suitors are plotting against a voyage the gods have already blessed.
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