Odyssey 7.228 · Book 7, lines 228–232
The guests go; Odysseus stays with the king and queen
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ σπεῖσάν τʼ ἔπιον θʼ ὅσον ἤθελε θυμός, οἱ μὲν κακκείοντες ἔβαν οἶκόνδε ἕκαστος, αὐτὰρ ὁ ἐν μεγάρῳ ὑπελείπετο δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, πὰρ δέ οἱ Ἀρήτη τε καὶ Ἀλκίνοος θεοειδὴς ἥσθην· ἀμφίπολοι δʼ ἀπεκόσμεον ἔντεα δαιτός.
But when they had poured libation and drunk as much as their heart wished, they, eager for bed, went each to his own house; but godlike Odysseus was left behind in the hall, and beside him Arete and godlike Alcinous sat; and the handmaids cleared away the vessels of the feast.
Word by word
The setting
The evening's assembly ends. After the closing libation, the Phaeacian nobles retire, leaving Odysseus alone in the hall with Arete and Alcinous while the handmaids clear the feast.
A note on this passage
A scene-clearing of great economy. The libation is poured, the guests drink their fill and go home to bed, and the wide public gathering empties to three people: the stranger, the queen, and the king. The handmaids tidying the vessels mark the shift from banquet to private talk.
The undercurrent is who is left. The poem deliberately keeps Arete in the room and names her first — πὰρ δέ οἱ Ἀρήτη τε καὶ Ἀλκίνοος. Odysseus was told on the way in that the queen's goodwill decides everything; now the crowd is gone and he sits before exactly the two who hold his passage home. The staging quietly arms the recognition about to come.
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