Odyssey 7.331 · Book 7, lines 331–333
Odysseus prays for the road home
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Odysseus — Ζεῦ πάτερ, αἴθʼ ὅσα εἶπε τελευτήσειεν ἅπαντα Ἀλκίνοος· τοῦ μέν κεν ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν ἄσβεστον κλέος εἴη ἐγὼ δέ κε πατρίδʼ ἱκοίμην.
Zeus father, would that Alcinous might bring to pass all that he said in full; then his fame would be unquenchable over the grain-giving earth, and I would reach my homeland.
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The setting
Alcinous has just wished aloud that the stranger might stay and wed Nausicaa, yet promised him safe convoy home in any case. Glad at the promise, Odysseus prays.
A note on this passage
Odysseus answers the king's offer with a prayer, not a promise. He asks Zeus that Alcinous accomplish everything he has pledged — the safe passage home. If he does, the king's fame will be unquenchable across the grain-giving earth, and Odysseus himself will reach his own country.
The tact is in what he prays for. Alcinous had just wished the stranger might stay and marry Nausicaa; Odysseus prays only for the road home, letting the marriage-offer pass without a word of refusal. And he pays the king in the Iliad's own coin — κλέος ἄσβεστον, undying fame — but earns it here for an act of welcome, not war. Fame for the host, homecoming for the guest, set in a single breath.
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