Odyssey 4.711 · Book 4, lines 711–714
Medon: a god, or his own heart
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τὴν δʼ ἠμείβετʼ ἔπειτα Μέδων πεπνυμένα εἰδώς·
Medon — οὐκ οἶδʼ ἤ τίς μιν θεὸς ὤρορεν, ἦε καὶ αὐτοῦ θυμὸς ἐφωρμήθη ἴμεν ἐς Πύλον, ὄφρα πύθηται πατρὸς ἑοῦ ἢ νόστον ἢ ὅν τινα πότμον ἐπέσπεν.
Then Medon, who knew wise counsel, answered her: I do not know whether some god stirred him, or his own heart was moved to go to Pylos, so as to learn of his own father's return, or whatever doom he has met.
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The setting
Penelope has asked why her son went, and whether it was to blot out his own name. Medon answers as honestly as he can, then leaves the hall.
A note on this passage
The herald cannot say what moved the boy. Perhaps a god stirred him; perhaps his own heart drove him to Pylos, to learn whether his father is returning or what fate he has met. Then Medon leaves the hall.
Homer's world runs on this double account of action: a god sends the impulse, and the man owns it too, and both are true at once. The audience holds the answer Medon lacks — it was Athena — but the poet lets him stay honestly uncertain. And his last words fold in the poem's own suspended question: is this a story of νόστος, a homecoming, or of a doom already met? Mother and herald stand on the same ignorance the epic exists to resolve.
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