Odyssey 6.96 · Book 6, lines 96–98
Bathing, oil, and a meal by the river
Read the full text in our reader
αἱ δὲ λοεσσάμεναι καὶ χρισάμεναι λίπʼ ἐλαίῳ δεῖπνον ἔπειθʼ εἵλοντο παρʼ ὄχθῃσιν ποταμοῖο, εἵματα δʼ ἠελίοιο μένον τερσήμεναι αὐγῇ.
And when they had bathed and anointed themselves richly with oil, then they took their meal beside the river's banks, while the clothes waited to dry in the sun's beam.
Word by word
The setting
The laundry is spread out drying on the shore. Now the girls turn to themselves.
A note on this passage
Three unhurried steps: the girls bathe, rub themselves with olive oil, and sit down to eat by the river while the wash dries in the sun. The oil is the mark of a settled, civilized life — the same gesture a host offers a guest — done here casually, among themselves.
The drying is what the plot needs. The clothes must lie in the sun for a while, and that idle stretch is the opening: with the work done and time to fill, the girls will take up the ball, and the ball will bring the shout that wakes the stranger. Homer lets the ordinary interval do the work.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 6.96 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 6.96 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/6.96/