The Siren Vase — Odysseus bound to the mast; Attic red-figure, c. 480 BC, British Museum
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Odyssey 5.110 · Book 5, lines 110–111

All drowned but one

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ἔνθʼ ἄλλοι μὲν πάντες ἀπέφθιθεν ἐσθλοὶ ἑταῖροι, τὸν δʼ ἄρα δεῦρʼ ἄνεμός τε φέρων καὶ κῦμα πέλασσε.

There all the rest, his noble comrades, perished; but the wind and wave, bearing him, brought him here.

Word by word

ἔνθʼénth’thereἄλλοιálloithe restμὲνmèn(indeed)πάντεςpántesallἀπέφθιθενapéphthithenperishedἐσθλοὶesthloìnobleἑταῖροιhetaîroicomrades,τὸνtònhimδʼd’butἄραára(then)δεῦρʼdeûr’hereἄνεμόςánemósthe windτεte(and)φέρωνphérōnbearingκαὶkaìandκῦμαkŷmawaveπέλασσεpélassebrought.

The setting

The scattering storm's toll. Of Odysseus's crew, everyone died; he alone was carried, by that same wind and wave, to Calypso's island.

A note on this passage

Two lines finish the crew. Everyone else died; the wind and the wave that killed them are the same wind and wave that carried the one survivor to Ogygia. The instrument of the disaster is also the instrument of his rescue, if being marooned can be called rescue.

The undercurrent is the loneliness of the lone survivor. The Odyssey is, among other things, the story of a man who outlived all his companions — and the poem states the fact flatly here, ‘all perished, but him…’, the whole grief of the returns tradition compressed into a single adversative. He arrives at Calypso's shore not saved but stranded, the last of his men.

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