Odyssey 5.286 · Book 5, lines 286–290
Poseidon: the gods changed the plan behind my back
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Poseidon — ὢ πόποι, ἦ μάλα δὴ μετεβούλευσαν θεοὶ ἄλλως ἀμφʼ Ὀδυσῆι ἐμεῖο μετʼ Αἰθιόπεσσιν ἐόντος, καὶ δὴ Φαιήκων γαίης σχεδόν, ἔνθα οἱ αἶσα ἐκφυγέειν μέγα πεῖραρ ὀιζύος, ἥ μιν ἱκάνει. ἀλλʼ ἔτι μέν μίν φημι ἅδην ἐλάαν κακότητος.
Ah, alas, truly the gods have surely changed their plans to another end about Odysseus, while I was among the Aethiopians; and now he is near the land of the Phaeacians, where it is his fate to escape the great bound of the misery that has come upon him. But still, I say, I shall drive him to his fill of trouble.
Word by word
The setting
Poseidon has just spotted Odysseus's raft nearing Scheria. This is his reaction, spoken to himself — the persecuting god realizing the other gods arranged the rescue while he was away among the Aethiopians.
A note on this passage
Poseidon's whole speech is a god discovering he has been outmaneuvered. While he feasted at the world's edge, the other gods changed the plan; now the man he hates is one landfall from safety, and fate — αἶσα — says he will reach it. The god says so himself.
The undercurrent is the boundary on divine anger. Poseidon cannot cancel what is fated; he can only work inside the margin fate leaves him. So his vow shrinks to exactly that margin: not 'he shall not escape,' but 'I shall drive him to his fill of trouble' first. Even a god's rage bends around αἶσα — it can raise the price of the homecoming, never revoke it.
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