Odyssey 7.151 · Book 7, lines 151–152
The suppliant's one request: home
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Odysseus — αὐτὰρ ἐμοὶ πομπὴν ὀτρύνετε πατρίδʼ ἱκέσθαι θᾶσσον, ἐπεὶ δὴ δηθὰ φίλων ἄπο πήματα πάσχω.
But for me, speed my convoy, that I may reach my homeland the sooner, since now for long, far from my own, I suffer griefs.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus, shipwrecked and brought to the Phaeacian court, has just supplicated Queen Arete and the king. These are the closing words of his plea, spoken from the hearth before the assembled nobles.
A note on this passage
Odysseus finishes his supplication with the one thing he wants: passage home. He does not boast or explain; he asks the Phaeacians to speed his convoy so he may reach his own country the sooner, and grounds the request in plain fact — he has suffered far from his own for a long time.
The restraint is the point. A lesser suppliant would tell the whole story; Odysseus gives only the ache and the need. πήματα πάσχω, 'I suffer griefs,' is the sum of years pressed into two words, laid at the feast by a man who knows that too much story would cheapen the asking.
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