Odyssey 5.195 · Book 5, lines 195–197
He takes the seat Hermes left
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καί ῥʼ ὁ μὲν ἔνθα καθέζετʼ ἐπὶ θρόνου ἔνθεν ἀνέστη Ἑρμείας, νύμφη δʼ ἐτίθει πάρα πᾶσαν ἐδωδήν, ἔσθειν καὶ πίνειν, οἷα βροτοὶ ἄνδρες ἔδουσιν·
And he sat down there on the throne from which Hermes had risen, and the nymph set beside him all manner of food, to eat and drink, such as mortal men eat.
Word by word
The setting
Inside the cave, Odysseus sits in the very chair Hermes had just vacated, and Calypso sets out a mortal's meal for him.
A note on this passage
Odysseus takes the throne the departed Hermes had used, and the nymph lays out a full spread of ordinary food — bread and wine, ‘such as mortal men eat.’ The lines are the calm mechanics of a guest being seated and fed.
The undercurrent is the seat still warm from a god. The divine order runs its errand through this cave — Hermes came, gave Zeus's command, rose and left — and now the man sits where the god sat. And the food is marked human on purpose: ‘such as mortal men eat’ quietly sets a boundary the next lines will sharpen, when the goddess eats her own, deathless fare across the table.
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