Odyssey 5.97 · Book 5, lines 97–99
Reluctantly, he names Zeus
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Hermes — εἰρωτᾷς μʼ ἐλθόντα θεὰ θεόν· αὐτὰρ ἐγώ τοι νημερτέως τὸν μῦθον ἐνισπήσω· κέλεαι γάρ. Ζεὺς ἐμέ γʼ ἠνώγει δεῦρʼ ἐλθέμεν οὐκ ἐθέλοντα·
You ask me, goddess, a god, why I have come; but I will tell you the tale truly, for you bid me. Zeus ordered me to come here unwilling.
Word by word
The setting
Hermes begins his reply. He does not want this errand and says so at once: a god sent unwilling across the empty sea, carrying an order from Zeus.
A note on this passage
Hermes opens by noting the oddness of the scene — a goddess questioning a god — and promises a straight answer because she has asked for one. Then he gives it, and it is a complaint: Zeus sent him, and he came against his will.
The undercurrent is that even the messenger of the gods resents this task. Ogygia is nowhere; the crossing is bleak; the order is unwelcome. By putting his own reluctance first, Hermes half-apologizes to Calypso before he wounds her, and quietly shifts the blame upward. Whatever comes next, it is Zeus's doing — Hermes is only the mouth that carries it.
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