Odyssey 5.421 · Book 5, lines 421–423
The fear of the deep
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ἠέ τί μοι καὶ κῆτος ἐπισσεύῃ μέγα δαίμων ἐξ ἁλός, οἷά τε πολλὰ τρέφει κλυτὸς Ἀμφιτρίτη· οἶδα γάρ, ὥς μοι ὀδώδυσται κλυτὸς ἐννοσίγαιος.
Or perhaps some god may drive a great sea-monster at me out of the sea, such as glorious Amphitrite breeds in numbers. For I know well how the famed Earth-shaker rages against me.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus, flung near the coast, is still speaking his dread aloud in the surf. Even past the rocks, worse waits in the open water — the sea breeds monsters, and a god need only send one. And he knows the sea-god has a personal grudge against him.
A note on this passage
Odysseus finishes weighing his dangers. Even past the rocks, the open water holds worse: the sea breeds monsters, and a god has only to loose one. His fear is concrete and informed — he is a sailor who knows what the deep contains.
The undercurrent is the name he will not use. He calls Poseidon only 'the famed Earth-shaker,' the cult title, and the verb ὀδώδυσται, 'is wroth,' is the very root Homer punned on when he first named the hero: Odysseus, the man the god is angry with. Alone in the water, he identifies his enemy by function, not by name, as if the title itself were the safer thing to speak.
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