Odyssey 5.79 · Book 5, lines 79–80
Gods are never strangers
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οὐ γάρ τʼ ἀγνῶτες θεοὶ ἀλλήλοισι πέλονται ἀθάνατοι, οὐδʼ εἴ τις ἀπόπροθι δώματα ναίει.
For gods are not unknown to one another — the immortals — not even if one dwells in a home far off.
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The setting
A brief general remark explaining how Calypso knew Hermes on sight — one of Homer's rare glimpses of how the gods regard one another.
A note on this passage
The poet pauses to explain the instant recognition with a small general law: the gods are never strangers to each other, no matter how far apart they live. Calypso, on her remote island at the navel of the sea, still knows Hermes at sight because they are both immortal.
The aside marks a boundary. Distance and obscurity divide mortals — a man far off is a stranger, unknown — but they do not divide gods, who form a single family across the whole world. It is a quiet reminder of the gulf the poem keeps in view: the deathless ones recognize one another effortlessly, while the mortal at the centre of their talk, Odysseus, has been out of sight and all but forgotten by the world of men for years.
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