Odyssey 5.377 · Book 5, lines 377–379
Poseidon's parting taunt
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Poseidon — οὕτω νῦν κακὰ πολλὰ παθὼν ἀλόω κατὰ πόντον, εἰς ὅ κεν ἀνθρώποισι διοτρεφέεσσι μιγήῃς. ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὥς σε ἔολπα ὀνόσσεσθαι κακότητος.
So now, having suffered many evils, drift over the sea, until you mingle with Zeus-nurtured men. But not even so do I think you will make light of your misery.
Word by word
The setting
Poseidon speaks to himself, over the swimming Odysseus. He cannot drown the hero — fate has decreed his return — so he pronounces a curse of suffering instead.
A note on this passage
The god's whole vengeance is compressed into an imperative: drift. He commands Odysseus to keep wandering and suffering right up to the moment he reaches the Phaeacians — the 'Zeus-nurtured men' Poseidon knows are fated to save him. Even naming the rescue, he insists the road to it will be misery enough.
The bitter word is the last one. ὄνομαι means to make light of, to think a thing too small to complain of; Poseidon's grudging point is that even after rescue, Odysseus will not be able to say his sufferings were slight. It is the concession of a god boxed in by fate: forbidden the kill, he settles for guaranteeing that the survivor will never call the ordeal small. The taunt admits its own limit even as it curses.
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