Odyssey 5.43 · Book 5, lines 43–46
Hermes binds on the golden sandals
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ὣς ἔφατʼ, οὐδʼ ἀπίθησε διάκτορος ἀργεϊφόντης. αὐτίκʼ ἔπειθʼ ὑπὸ ποσσὶν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα, ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια, τά μιν φέρον ἠμὲν ἐφʼ ὑγρὴν ἠδʼ ἐπʼ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν ἅμα πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο.
Thus he spoke, nor did the guide Argeiphontes disobey. At once, then, he bound beneath his feet the fair sandals, ambrosial, golden, which bore him both over the watery deep and over the boundless earth with the breath of the wind.
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The setting
Zeus has finished. His messenger Hermes — called Argeiphontes and 'the guide' — obeys at once, and the narrative pauses on the arming type-scene: the immortal golden sandals that carry him over sea and land on the wind.
A note on this passage
Zeus finishes and the scene turns to action. Hermes obeys instantly — the formulaic ‘nor did he disobey’ — and the poem slows to watch him dress for flight, binding on the golden, deathless sandals that carry a god over sea and land alike, riding the wind.
This is a type-scene, the divine arming, and its calm is the point. After a speech tight with conditions and fate, the verse opens into unhurried, luxuriant detail: ambrosial, golden, over water and over earth. A god crosses the whole world as easily as putting on shoes — the very ease that Odysseus, about to lash logs together, will not be given.
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