Odyssey 5.65 · Book 5, lines 65–67
The sea-birds roosting
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ἔνθα δέ τʼ ὄρνιθες τανυσίπτεροι εὐνάζοντο, σκῶπές τʼ ἴρηκές τε τανύγλωσσοί τε κορῶναι εἰνάλιαι, τῇσίν τε θαλάσσια ἔργα μέμηλεν.
And there long-winged birds roosted — owls and hawks and long-tongued sea-crows, to whom the works of the sea are a care.
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The setting
The catalogue of Calypso's island continues, moving from the trees to the birds that nest in them.
A note on this passage
The birds fill in the island's life. Long-winged birds nest in the trees: owls, hawks, and clamorous sea-crows whose business is on the water. The last phrase gives them a small dignity — the sea's ‘works’ are their care, their proper labour, as ploughing is a farmer's.
There is a faint counter-note. These are sea-birds, creatures at home over the open water that Odysseus cannot cross. The paradise is ringed by the very element that holds him prisoner; even its birds belong to the sea. Homer keeps the beauty in the foreground and lets the sea murmur just underneath it.
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