Odyssey 5.105 · Book 5, lines 105–109
The most wretched man of Troy
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φησί τοι ἄνδρα παρεῖναι ὀιζυρώτατον ἄλλων, τῶν ἀνδρῶν, οἳ ἄστυ πέρι Πριάμοιο μάχοντο εἰνάετες, δεκάτῳ δὲ πόλιν πέρσαντες ἔβησαν οἴκαδʼ· ἀτὰρ ἐν νόστῳ Ἀθηναίην ἀλίτοντο, ἥ σφιν ἐπῶρσʼ ἄνεμόν τε κακὸν καὶ κύματα μακρά.
He says a man is here, most wretched of all, of those men who fought around Priam's city nine years, and in the tenth sacked the city and went homeward; but on the return they sinned against Athena, who roused against them an evil wind and long waves.
Word by word
The setting
Now the message itself. The man Calypso holds is a veteran of the ten-year war at Troy; on the voyage home the Greeks offended Athena, and she scattered them with a storm.
A note on this passage
Hermes gives the man's résumé without giving his name: he is the most wretched of the whole army that besieged Troy for nine years and took it in the tenth. On the way home the Greeks wronged Athena, and she raised the storm that broke them.
The undercurrent is the nameless glory turned to ruin. This is the sack of Troy — the summit of Greek heroism — recalled only as the prelude to disaster, and the victors' return spoiled by their own offense against the goddess who had helped them win. ‘Most wretched of all’ is the title he now wears in place of conqueror. The poem keeps his name back one more beat, letting the wretchedness define him before the identity does.
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