Odyssey 5.354 · Book 5, lines 354–355
Much-enduring Odysseus turns it over
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αὐτὰρ ὁ μερμήριξε πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, ὀχθήσας δʼ ἄρα εἶπε πρὸς ὃν μεγαλήτορα θυμόν·
But he pondered — much-enduring, noble Odysseus — and, troubled, he spoke to his own great-hearted spirit:
Word by word
The setting
Left alone again with the veil in his hands, Odysseus does not simply obey. The poem names him in full — 'much-enduring, noble Odysseus' — and shows him doing what he does best: weighing, doubting, talking it through with himself.
A note on this passage
A god has just handed him a guaranteed rescue, and his response is to hesitate. The line pauses on the full formula — πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, 'much-enduring, noble Odysseus' — precisely as he stops to think, so that the epithet for endurance frames a moment of pure caution rather than action.
The undercurrent is the habit that keeps him alive. Odysseus talks to his own θυμός, his 'heart' or 'spirit,' as to a separate counselor — the poem's picture of a mind at odds with itself, deliberating. Where another hero would leap, he interrogates the gift, because the last few years have taught him that offers of help are the exact form his troubles like to take. His signature virtue here is not courage but distrust.
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Odyssey 5.354 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/5.354/