Odyssey 5.203 · Book 5, lines 203–205
‘Do you truly wish to go?’
Read the full text in our reader
διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη, πολυμήχανʼ Ὀδυσσεῦ, οὕτω δὴ οἶκόνδε φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν αὐτίκα νῦν ἐθέλεις ἰέναι; σὺ δὲ χαῖρε καὶ ἔμπης.
Zeus-born son of Laertes, resourceful Odysseus, do you truly wish to go home now at once, to your dear native land? Then fare you well even so.
Word by word
The setting
Calypso's speech opens with Odysseus's full heroic titles, then puts the real question: does he truly mean to leave for home at once? — with a clipped ‘fare well, even so.’
A note on this passage
She opens with his three grand titles — Zeus-born, son of Laertes, resourceful — and then the plain, wounded question: do you really want to go home right now? The line ends on a curt ‘fare well, even so,’ a goddess conceding with a catch in the voice.
The undercurrent is that the full name is armor over a hurt. She gives him his whole grand identity exactly as she gives him up. ‘Resourceful’ (πολυμήχανος) is half praise, half reproach — the cleverness she admires is the cunning now choosing a bare rock in the sea over her. ‘Fare well anyway’ is not warmth; it is surrender said through teeth.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 5.203 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 5.203 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/5.203/