Odyssey 4.781 · Book 4, lines 781–786
The suitors rig the ship and wait for evening
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ἐν δʼ ἱστόν τʼ ἐτίθεντο καὶ ἱστία νηὶ μελαίνῃ, ἠρτύναντο δʼ ἐρετμὰ τροποῖς ἐν δερματίνοισιν, πάντα κατὰ μοῖραν, ἀνά θʼ ἱστία λευκὰ πέτασσαν· τεύχεα δέ σφʼ ἤνεικαν ὑπέρθυμοι θεράποντες. ὑψοῦ δʼ ἐν νοτίῳ τήν γʼ ὥρμισαν, ἐκ δʼ ἔβαν αὐτοί· ἔνθα δὲ δόρπον ἕλοντο, μένον δʼ ἐπὶ ἕσπερον ἐλθεῖν.
And in the black ship they set in place the mast and the sails, and fitted the oars in leather thole-loops, all in due order; and spread aloft the white sails. High-spirited attendants brought them the war-gear. High up in the deep water they moored her, and stepped out themselves. There they took supper, and waited for evening to come.
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The setting
The suitors have learned that Telemachus sailed for Pylos and Sparta, and mean to kill him on his way home. Now they ready a ship in the harbour of Ithaca to lie in wait at sea. This is the arming of the ambush.
A note on this passage
Pure procedure, told in the fixed language of putting a ship to sea: mast and sails stepped, oars looped to their leather thongs, everything κατὰ μοῖραν, 'in due order,' the white canvas hoisted, the moored ship left riding in deep water while the men go ashore to supper. It is a type-scene, the same one the poem uses for honest voyages.
That is the quiet menace of it. The very words that equip Telemachus's own noble departure here fit out the boat meant to murder him. The attendants who carry down the war-gear are 'high-spirited'; the order is seamanlike and calm. Homer lets the formula stay serene, and the reader feels the gap between the fair procedure and the foul purpose it serves.
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