Odyssey 7.339 · Book 7, lines 339–341
The maids spread the bed and wake him
Read the full text in our reader
αἱ δʼ ἴσαν ἐκ μεγάροιο δάος μετὰ χερσὶν ἔχουσαι· αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ στόρεσαν πυκινὸν λέχος ἐγκονέουσαι, ὤτρυνον δʼ Ὀδυσῆα παριστάμεναι ἐπέεσσιν·
And they went out from the hall holding a torch in their hands; but when they had busily spread the close-made bed, they roused Odysseus, standing beside him, with words:
Word by word
The setting
At Arete's command the handmaids leave the hall to make up the guest's bed in the portico, then come to rouse the sleeping-ready stranger.
A note on this passage
A small, exact picture of a house at bedtime. The maids carry a torch out of the hall, spread the close-made bed under the portico, and, their work done, stand over the guest to wake him for it. Three lines of pure domestic routine, and the poem lingers on every step.
The care is the point. πυκινόν, the word for the bed, is the same Homer uses for a shrewd, close-knit mind — a bed 'well put together,' made with the attention a house gives its own. After a raft, a storm, and a night under leaves by the river, Odysseus is handed the plain luxury of a bed made for him, and the torch in the maids' hands is the last warm light of the day.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 7.339 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 7.339 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/7.339/