Odyssey 6.41 · Book 6, lines 41–46
Athena departs to changeless Olympus
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ἡ μὲν ἄρʼ ὣς εἰποῦσʼ ἀπέβη γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη Οὔλυμπόνδʼ, ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ ἔμμεναι. οὔτʼ ἀνέμοισι τινάσσεται οὔτε ποτʼ ὄμβρῳ δεύεται οὔτε χιὼν ἐπιπίλναται, ἀλλὰ μάλʼ αἴθρη πέπταται ἀνέφελος, λευκὴ δʼ ἐπιδέδρομεν αἴγλη· τῷ ἔνι τέρπονται μάκαρες θεοὶ ἤματα πάντα.
So, having spoken, grey-eyed Athena departed to Olympus, where they say the seat of the gods stays secure forever: not shaken by winds, nor drenched by rain, nor does snow fall on it, but a cloudless air spreads out, and a white radiance runs over it; there the blessed gods take their delight all their days.
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The setting
The dream done, the narrative follows Athena home. These lines are the set-piece description of Olympus, the changeless dwelling of the gods, before the poem returns to Nausicaa waking at dawn.
A note on this passage
Her work done, Athena leaves, and the poem climbs with her to Olympus for the famous picture of the gods' home: never shaken by wind, never wet with rain or snow, wrapped in cloudless brightness, where the blessed gods are at ease for all their days.
The calm is placed on purpose. We pass straight from this weatherless, painless heaven to a girl who must beg a cart and a man asleep in the dirt under leaves. Homer sets the gods' unbroken ease beside the whole human world of weather, labor and need out of which the rest of Book 6 is made.
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