Odyssey 7.323 · Book 7, lines 323–328
There and back in a single day
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λαῶν ἡμετέρων, ὅτε τε ξανθὸν Ῥαδάμανθυν ἦγον ἐποψόμενον Τιτυὸν Γαιήιον υἱόν. καὶ μὲν οἱ ἔνθʼ ἦλθον καὶ ἄτερ καμάτοιο τέλεσσαν ἤματι τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ ἀπήνυσαν οἴκαδʼ ὀπίσσω. εἰδήσεις δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ὅσσον ἄρισται νῆες ἐμαὶ καὶ κοῦροι ἀναρρίπτειν ἅλα πηδῷ.
of our people, when they carried fair-haired Rhadamanthys to visit Tityos, the son of Gaia. And they went there, and without toil accomplished it, on that same day, and made the return home again. And you will know yourself, in your mind, how excellent are my ships and my young men at tossing up the brine with the oar.
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The setting
Alcinous finishes the boast with a proof: once his people ferried the hero Rhadamanthys all the way to Euboea to visit Tityos, and returned home the same day. Odysseus will see for himself how fine the ships and rowers are.
A note on this passage
The proof of the marvel: the Phaeacians once carried fair-haired Rhadamanthys to Euboea to look on Tityos, son of Earth, and did it without toil, coming and going home on the same day. The stranger, the king promises, will learn firsthand how excellent his ships and young oarsmen are.
The names glance at an older, stranger world — Rhadamanthys the just judge, Tityos the earth-born giant. Phaeacia sits at its rim, ferrying between the human sea and myth as easily as a day-trip. The same-day return is the boast's heart: distance means nothing to these ships. It is a hospitality so total it verges on the supernatural — and the reader half-hears the risk in a people who can cross any water and pay nothing.
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