Odyssey 6.127 · Book 6, lines 127–129
He breaks a branch and creeps out
Read the full text in our reader
ὣς εἰπὼν θάμνων ὑπεδύσετο δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, ἐκ πυκινῆς δʼ ὕλης πτόρθον κλάσε χειρὶ παχείῃ φύλλων, ὡς ῥύσαιτο περὶ χροῒ μήδεα φωτός.
So speaking, noble Odysseus crept out from the bushes, and with his stout hand he broke a leafy branch from the thick wood, so as to shield about his body a man's nakedness.
Word by word
The setting
His debate over, Odysseus acts. Naked from the wreck, he emerges from cover — but first arms himself against shame with the only thing to hand, a leafy bough.
A note on this passage
The narrative takes over from the monologue. Odysseus leaves the thicket, and Homer records the practical, human detail: with one thick hand he snaps off a leaf-covered branch to hold in front of him. The hero of a thousand devices meets his most basic problem — he has no clothes — and solves it on the spot.
The small gesture carries the register of the whole scene. This is not the sacker of Troy but a bare, salt-stiff castaway managing his own indecency before a group of young women. The branch is a fig-leaf, and the poem knows it: the greatness will have to be rebuilt from nothing, starting with a stick and a plea. Dignity here is improvised.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 6.127 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 6.127 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/6.127/