Odyssey 4.835 · Book 4, lines 835–837
I will not babble idle things
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τὴν δʼ ἀπαμειβόμενον προσέφη εἴδωλον ἀμαυρόν·
The Phantom — οὐ μέν τοι κεῖνόν γε διηνεκέως ἀγορεύσω, ζώει ὅ γʼ ἦ τέθνηκε· κακὸν δʼ ἀνεμώλια βάζειν.
Answering her, the dim phantom said: I will not tell you of that man in full, whether he lives or is dead; it is evil to babble idle words.
Word by word
The setting
Penelope has begged the phantom to say whether Odysseus is alive or dead. The dim dream-image refuses the question outright and, with that refusal, prepares to vanish.
A note on this passage
The phantom draws a hard line. It will not give a full account of Odysseus, alive or dead — and it justifies the silence with a proverb: it is a bad thing to babble empty words. The comfort about Telemachus was allowed; the truth about Odysseus is withheld, cleanly and without apology.
The undercurrent is the discipline of the messenger. The phantom is only Athena's instrument, and it speaks exactly and only what it was given. To go further would be ἀνεμώλια — 'windy' words, talk with nothing behind it — and even a dream will not do that. The poem keeps its own great secret intact, Odysseus stranded on Calypso's island, and lets a scruple about idle speech stand guard over the plot.
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