Odyssey 7.283 · Book 7, lines 283–286
A god pours sleep
Read the full text in our reader
ἐκ δʼ ἔπεσον θυμηγερέων, ἐπὶ δʼ ἀμβροσίη νὺξ ἤλυθʼ. ἐγὼ δʼ ἀπάνευθε διιπετέος ποταμοῖο ἐκβὰς ἐν θάμνοισι κατέδραθον, ἀμφὶ δὲ φύλλα ἠφυσάμην· ὕπνον δὲ θεὸς κατʼ ἀπείρονα χεῦεν.
I fell out, gathering my spirit, and ambrosial night came on; and I, far off from the sky-fed river, having climbed out, lay down to sleep among the bushes, and heaped leaves over me; and a god poured down boundless sleep upon me.
Word by word
The setting
Ashore at last and half-conscious, Odysseus describes his first night on Phaeacia: he crawls from the river into a thicket, covers himself with leaves, and a god sends him sleep.
A note on this passage
He drags himself out, barely conscious, as ambrosial night comes down. Away from the river he crawls into a thicket, heaps leaves over himself, and a god pours boundless sleep upon him.
The tender note is the god's mercy. After so much divine anger, an unnamed god now pours sleep 'without limit' over the wrecked man — the same heaven that hounded him at sea now shields him on land. Homer does not say which god; the kindness is anonymous, the way exhaustion's relief can feel like grace arriving from nowhere.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 7.283 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 7.283 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/7.283/