Odyssey 7.301 · Book 7, lines 301–302
You supplicated her first
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ἦγεν ἐς ἡμέτερον, σὺ δʼ ἄρα πρώτην ἱκέτευσας. τὸν δʼ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς·
she led you to our house, and you were the first to supplicate her. Answering him, resourceful Odysseus spoke:
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The setting
Alcinous has just gently faulted his daughter Nausicaa for not escorting the stranger to the palace herself, leaving him to arrive alone. He finishes the mild reproach, and resourceful Odysseus turns to answer.
A note on this passage
The king's soft complaint lands and closes: Nausicaa should have brought the guest in her own train, and instead he came to the threshold and made supplication on his own. Then the reply formula hands the floor across — ‘resourceful Odysseus’ answers, the epithet flagging in advance that what follows will be handled with care.
The charge is really about the manners of xenia — how a guest ought to be received and by whom. Odysseus is named πολύμητις at exactly the moment he must defend a young woman to her own father without giving offense. The formula names the skill just before we watch him use it.
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