Odyssey 4.68 · Book 4, lines 68–71
A whisper across the table
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος ἐξ ἔρον ἕντο, δὴ τότε Τηλέμαχος προσεφώνεε Νέστορος υἱόν, ἄγχι σχὼν κεφαλήν, ἵνα μὴ πευθοίαθʼ οἱ ἄλλοι·
Telemachus — φράζεο, Νεστορίδη, τῷ ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ,
But when they had put away the desire for drink and food, then Telemachus spoke to Nestor's son, holding his head close so the others would not overhear: Mark this, son of Nestor, dear to my heart —
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The setting
The meal is over. Overawed by the gleaming wealth of the Spartan hall, Telemachus leans close to his companion Peisistratus (Nestor's son) and murmurs, so that Menelaus and the others will not hear.
A note on this passage
The formula that ends every Homeric meal — ‘when they had put away desire for food and drink’ — closes the feast and opens the talk. Then a very human moment: the boy from rocky Ithaca, dazzled, leans over and whispers to his friend rather than speak his wonder aloud in the great man's house.
The hushed voice is characterization. Telemachus is young and out of his depth, still learning how to carry himself among kings — the very growth Athena set going in Book 1. He does not yet have his father's ease in strange halls; he leans in and lowers his voice, and the poem lets us hear a son who is not yet the man he is becoming.
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