Odyssey 4.675 · Book 4, lines 675–676
Penelope is not left in the dark
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οὐδʼ ἄρα Πηνελόπεια πολὺν χρόνον ἦεν ἄπυστος μύθων, οὓς μνηστῆρες ἐνὶ φρεσὶ βυσσοδόμευον·
Nor indeed was Penelope for a long time unaware of the plans which the suitors were brooding deep in their hearts;
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The setting
The scene shifts to Penelope. Though the plot was hatched in secret, word of it does not stay hidden from her for long.
A note on this passage
The camera cuts to the house's mistress. The plot was made in secret, yet the poet tells us at once that Penelope will not be kept ignorant of it for long. The line is a bridge, moving us from the suitors' huddle to the grief about to fall on the wife.
The undercurrent is the word βυσσοδόμευον, ‘were building in the deep.’ It is a striking, physical metaphor — plotting imagined as construction sunk far below the surface, like a foundation laid underwater. The suitors think their scheme is buried out of sight. The very next line will show how shallow that secrecy was.
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