Odyssey 7.146 · Book 7, lines 146–150
Arete, daughter of Rhexenor: the supplication
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Odysseus — Ἀρήτη, θύγατερ Ῥηξήνορος ἀντιθέοιο, σόν τε πόσιν σά τε γούναθʼ ἱκάνω πολλὰ μογήσας τούσδε τε δαιτυμόνας· τοῖσιν θεοὶ ὄλβια δοῖεν ζωέμεναι, καὶ παισὶν ἐπιτρέψειεν ἕκαστος κτήματʼ ἐνὶ μεγάροισι γέρας θʼ ὅ τι δῆμος ἔδωκεν·
Arete, daughter of godlike Rhexenor, to your husband and to your knees I come, after many toils, and to these banqueters — to whom may the gods grant prosperity in living, and may each hand on to his children the possessions in his halls, and the privilege that the people gave.
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The setting
His arms still at the queen's knees, Odysseus speaks his first words in the palace. He opens not with his own name but with hers, and with a blessing on the household — the tact of a suppliant who knows the rules of guest-friendship.
A note on this passage
Odysseus speaks, and every word is calculated courtesy. He names Arete first and by her father's line, folds the banqueters into his blessing, and prays that the gods give them prosperity and that each may pass his goods and honor safely to his children.
The tact is the point. A suppliant with nothing offers the one thing he has — a blessing — and aims it not at himself but at the household's continuity, the handing-down of property and rank from father to son. That is exactly what is broken in Odysseus's own house, where suitors devour the inheritance meant for Telemachus. He blesses in others the order he is fighting to restore at home.
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