Odyssey 7.27 · Book 7, lines 27–30
“I will show you”
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τὸν δʼ αὖτε προσέειπε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη·
Athena — τοιγὰρ ἐγώ τοι, ξεῖνε πάτερ, δόμον, ὅν με κελεύεις, δείξω, ἐπεί μοι πατρὸς ἀμύμονος ἐγγύθι ναίει. ἀλλʼ ἴθι σιγῇ τοῖον, ἐγὼ δʼ ὁδὸν ἡγεμονεύσω,
In turn the goddess answered him, gray-eyed Athena: Well then, stranger father, I will show you the house you bid me, since near it dwells my blameless father. But go just so, in silence, and I will lead the way,
Word by word
The setting
The disguised Athena answers warmly, offering to lead Odysseus to the palace — her own home stands nearby — but warns him to follow in silence and look at no one.
A note on this passage
She answers at once and kindly. Calling him ‘stranger father,’ she promises to show the very house he asks for, since her own father lives close by. Then the first instruction: go in silence, just so, and let her lead the way.
The undercurrent is the turn from question to guidance. The moment he asks well, the world opens: the god was already beside him, and the answer is not directions but an escort. The order to keep silent looks ahead to the mist still on him — he is to move through the town unseen and unspeaking, a guest smuggled to the threshold before he is ever announced.
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