Odyssey 5.445 · Book 5, lines 445–450
The suppliant's prayer
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Odysseus — κλῦθι, ἄναξ, ὅτις ἐσσί· πολύλλιστον δέ σʼ ἱκάνω, φεύγων ἐκ πόντοιο Ποσειδάωνος ἐνιπάς. αἰδοῖος μέν τʼ ἐστὶ καὶ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν ἀνδρῶν ὅς τις ἵκηται ἀλώμενος, ὡς καὶ ἐγὼ νῦν σόν τε ῥόον σά τε γούναθʼ ἱκάνω πολλὰ μογήσας. ἀλλʼ ἐλέαιρε, ἄναξ· ἱκέτης δέ τοι εὔχομαι εἶναι.
Hear me, lord, whoever you are; with much prayer I come to you, fleeing out of the sea from Poseidon's wrath. Even to the immortal gods that man is worthy of reverence who comes wandering, as I too now come to your stream and your knees, after much suffering. But pity me, lord; I declare myself your suppliant.
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The setting
This is Odysseus's prayer to the river-god — his first words in the poem to another being since we met him. He claims the sacred standing of a suppliant: the stranger who comes helpless and under a god's protection.
A note on this passage
The prayer is a small masterpiece of tact under duress. He does not presume to know the god's name — 'whoever you are' — and leads with the one credential he has: he is a fugitive from Poseidon, the river-god's fellow immortal. He asks for nothing but pity and the standing of a suppliant.
Under the courtesy is Homeric law. The wanderer who comes to your knees is 'reverend even to the gods'; to turn him away is to offend Zeus, guardian of suppliants. Odysseus, spent, plays the only card that outranks a sea-god's grudge — the sacred claim of the helpless stranger. It is the first time in the poem we see his real weapon: not force, but knowing exactly what to say.
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