Odyssey 5.198 · Book 5, lines 198–200
Two foods at one table
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αὐτὴ δʼ ἀντίον ἷζεν Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο, τῇ δὲ παρʼ ἀμβροσίην δμῳαὶ καὶ νέκταρ ἔθηκαν. οἱ δʼ ἐπʼ ὀνείαθʼ ἑτοῖμα προκείμενα χεῖρας ἴαλλον.
And she herself sat opposite godlike Odysseus, and beside her the handmaids set ambrosia and nectar. And they put forth their hands to the good things lying ready before them.
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The setting
They eat facing each other. The handmaids serve Calypso her divine fare, and the meal closes on the formulaic line that ends every Homeric feast.
A note on this passage
She sits down across from him, and her handmaids set out ambrosia and nectar for her while he eats a man's food. The scene ends with the fixed verse Homer uses to close a meal: they reached out their hands to the good things ready before them.
The undercurrent is the shared table that is not shared. The two foods, placed side by side, are the whole problem of Book 5 in miniature: she can offer him her nectar — deathlessness — but he takes bread. The gulf between goddess and man sits right there on the board, and it is exactly what she will name aloud a few lines later, when she offers to make him immortal if he stays.
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