Odyssey 6.316 · Book 6, lines 316–320
The cart rolls home at a walk
Read the full text in our reader
ὣς ἄρα φωνήσασʼ ἵμασεν μάστιγι φαεινῇ ἡμιόνους· αἱ δʼ ὦκα λίπον ποταμοῖο ῥέεθρα. αἱ δʼ ἐὺ μὲν τρώχων, ἐὺ δὲ πλίσσοντο πόδεσσιν· ἡ δὲ μάλʼ ἡνιόχευεν, ὅπως ἅμʼ ἑποίατο πεζοὶ ἀμφίπολοί τʼ Ὀδυσεύς τε, νόῳ δʼ ἐπέβαλλεν ἱμάσθλην.
So having spoken she lashed the mules with the shining whip; and quickly they left the streams of the river. Well they trotted, and well they stepped out with their feet; but she drove carefully, so that the maids and Odysseus, on foot, could keep pace, and with judgment she plied the lash.
Word by word
The setting
Nausicaa's speech is over. The narrative resumes: she whips up the mules, and the washing-party starts back toward the town — but at a pace her walking companions can match.
A note on this passage
The scene shifts from speech to motion. Nausicaa cracks the whip and the mules pull away from the river; they trot smartly, sure-footed on the road. It is the small machinery of a departure, given a few brisk lines.
But she reins them in. She drives with deliberate care so the walking maids and Odysseus can stay abreast of the cart, laying the lash on only as much as her plan allows — with judgment, the poem says, νόῳ. The pace itself is courtesy: she will not leave her guest trailing in the dust, and she manages the whole procession so that arriving separately, as she means them to, still looks unforced.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 6.316 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 6.316 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/6.316/