Odyssey 5.411 · Book 5, lines 411–414
Sharp crags, sheer cliff, deep water
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ἔκτοσθεν μὲν γὰρ πάγοι ὀξέες, ἀμφὶ δὲ κῦμα βέβρυχεν ῥόθιον, λισσὴ δʼ ἀναδέδρομε πέτρη, ἀγχιβαθὴς δὲ θάλασσα, καὶ οὔ πως ἔστι πόδεσσι στήμεναι ἀμφοτέροισι καὶ ἐκφυγέειν κακότητα·
For outside, on one side, are sharp crags, and all around the surging wave roars; a sheer rock-face runs up, and the sea is deep close in, and there is no way with feet to stand firm on both, and to escape ruin:
Word by word
The setting
Still speaking to himself, Odysseus takes the measure of the coast feature by feature, looking for any foothold.
A note on this passage
Odysseus reads the trap piece by piece, as a survivor must. On the seaward side stand sharp crags; around them the surge roars; behind them a smooth cliff rises straight up with no handhold; and the water runs deep right against the rock, so there is no shallow to wade. Every option is checked and closed.
The tally is really an assessment of footing. What he wants is somewhere to plant both feet and haul out — and each feature named denies exactly that: the crags cut, the cliff gives nothing to grip, the deep water offers no floor. The catalogue of the coast has become a catalogue of the ways there is no ground to stand on.
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