Odyssey 5.281 · Book 5, lines 281–285
Poseidon, returning, spies him from the Solymi
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εἴσατο δʼ ὡς ὅτε ῥινὸν ἐν ἠεροειδέι πόντῳ. τὸν δʼ ἐξ Αἰθιόπων ἀνιὼν κρείων ἐνοσίχθων τηλόθεν ἐκ Σολύμων ὀρέων ἴδεν· εἴσατο γάρ οἱ πόντον ἐπιπλώων. ὁ δʼ ἐχώσατο κηρόθι μᾶλλον, κινήσας δὲ κάρη προτὶ ὃν μυθήσατο θυμόν·
It showed like a shield in the misty sea. But the lord earth-shaker, returning from the Aethiopians, saw him from afar, from the Solymi mountains; for he showed to him sailing over the sea. And he grew angry the more in his heart, and shaking his head he spoke to his own spirit:
Word by word
The setting
The shadowy hills of Scheria have just come into view. Poseidon, who has been away feasting among the distant Aethiopians while the other gods arranged Odysseus's release, is now on his way back.
A note on this passage
Two sightings cross here. Odysseus sees land — dim and low, 'like a shield' laid on the hazy sea. At the same moment Poseidon, on his way home from the feast among the Aethiopians, catches sight of the raft from the peaks of the Solymi and understands what the other gods have done in his absence.
The undercurrent is timing. Back in Book 1 the poem sent Poseidon to the world's edge so the rescue could be arranged; now, at the precise moment land appears, he returns and looks down. The window of divine distraction shuts on the exact line where safety comes into view. His anger 'the more in his heart' is the old grudge of the proem, flaring the instant its object is almost free.
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