Odyssey 5.171 · Book 5, lines 171–172
He shuddered
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ὣς φάτο, ῥίγησεν δὲ πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·
So she spoke, and much-enduring godlike Odysseus shuddered, and raising his voice he addressed winged words to her:
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The setting
The reply formula: Calypso has finished her offer of release. The poem names the hero with his great epithet and gives his reaction before a word of his answer.
A note on this passage
A standard reply formula, but two words in it do real work. This is where the poem gives Odysseus his signature title, πολύτλας, ‘much-enduring’ — the man who has borne everything. And his first reaction to the offer of freedom is not joy but a shudder.
That shudder is the whole character in a single verb. Set free at last, the survivor's instinct is suspicion, not relief. He has been on this island long enough to distrust a gift; a goddess who suddenly turns kind, offering him a flimsy raft and an open sea, is exactly the kind of thing that has drowned other men. The epithet ‘much-enduring’ and the shudder belong together: he endures because he never lets his guard down, not even when the door swings open.
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