Odyssey 8.104 · Book 8, lines 104–108
The herald leads the blind bard out
Read the full text in our reader
ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας ἡγήσατο, τοὶ δʼ ἅμʼ ἕποντο. κὰδ δʼ ἐκ πασσαλόφι κρέμασεν φόρμιγγα λίγειαν, Δημοδόκου δʼ ἕλε χεῖρα καὶ ἔξαγεν ἐκ μεγάροιο κῆρυξ· ἦρχε δὲ τῷ αὐτὴν ὁδὸν ἥν περ οἱ ἄλλοι Φαιήκων οἱ ἄριστοι, ἀέθλια θαυμανέοντες.
So having spoken he led the way, and they followed close behind him. The herald hung up the clear-toned lyre from its peg, took Demodocus by the hand and led him out of the hall, leading him on along the same road by which the other Phaeacian nobles, the best, had gone, eager to watch the contests.
Word by word
The setting
Alcinous's proposal is accepted at once. The company moves from the banquet hall out to the Phaeacian assembly-ground for the games.
A note on this passage
The scene shifts from hall to field. Alcinous leads and the company falls in behind, and the herald performs the small careful acts of clearing away: he hangs the lyre back on its peg, takes the blind singer Demodocus by the hand, and walks him out along the same road the nobles are taking to the games.
The care around Demodocus is quietly telling. The bard cannot find his own way, so a herald guides him hand in hand; the instrument that carried the song is set gently aside, not dropped. Homer lingers over the courtesy shown to the man whose gift has just moved a king's guest to tears — the poem tending its own image of the singer.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 8.104 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 8.104 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.104/