Odyssey 5.7 · Book 5, lines 7–12
Athena's dare: let kings be cruel
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Athena — Ζεῦ πάτερ ἠδʼ ἄλλοι μάκαρες θεοὶ αἰὲν ἐόντες, μή τις ἔτι πρόφρων ἀγανὸς καὶ ἤπιος ἔστω σκηπτοῦχος βασιλεύς, μηδὲ φρεσὶν αἴσιμα εἰδώς, ἀλλʼ αἰεὶ χαλεπός τʼ εἴη καὶ αἴσυλα ῥέζοι· ὡς οὔ τις μέμνηται Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο λαῶν οἷσιν ἄνασσε πατὴρ δʼ ὣς ἤπιος ἦεν.
Father Zeus, and you other blessed gods who live forever: let no sceptred king be eager and gentle, and kind, nor knowing in his heart what is right, but let him ever be harsh, and do wicked things; since no one remembers godlike Odysseus, of the people he ruled, and was gentle as a father.
Word by word
The setting
Athena's speech to the council. She opens with a bitter paradox: since Odysseus's own people have forgotten their gentle king, let no king ever again trouble to be just — the world plainly does not reward it.
A note on this passage
Athena frames her plea as sardonic advice. If a good king can be forgotten like this, then kingship should give up kindness altogether: let every ruler be harsh and lawless instead. She sets Odysseus's fatherly gentleness against Ithaca's neglect of him.
The argument is really aimed at the gods, not at kings. By pretending to counsel cruelty, she dares Zeus to prove that goodness is not, in fact, a fool's game — that the world he governs does reward a just man. The ideal she holds up, ἤπιος πατήρ, 'gentle as a father,' is the standard the whole poem measures the suitors against; a king who ruled his people like his children, now gone, and his house being devoured.
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