Odyssey 7.237 · Book 7, lines 237–239
Who are you, and who gave you these?
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Arete — ξεῖνε, τὸ μέν σε πρῶτον ἐγὼν εἰρήσομαι αὐτή· τίς πόθεν εἰς ἀνδρῶν; τίς τοι τάδε εἵματʼ ἔδωκεν; οὐ δὴ φῆς ἐπὶ πόντον ἀλώμενος ἐνθάδʼ ἱκέσθαι;
Stranger, this first I myself will ask you: who among men are you, and from where? Who gave you these garments? Do you not say that, wandering over the sea, you came here?
Word by word
The setting
Arete's question to the seated stranger. Recognizing her own handiwork in his clothes, she asks him plainly for his identity and origin — and, pointedly, for how he came by the garments.
A note on this passage
Three quick questions, courteous and exact. Arete takes the lead herself — ‘I myself will ask’ — and moves from the open question of identity to the sharp one she already half-answers: who gave you these clothes? Her last line, half accusation, half opening, notes that he claims to have come wandering over the sea.
The pressure sits on the garments. The polite ‘who are you, from where’ is standard guest-welcome, but the clothing question is not idle: she made them, so she knows they passed through her house. She is giving the stranger room to explain without naming her daughter, testing whether he will tell it straight. Odysseus, of all men, will need his tact.
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