Odyssey 8.145 · Book 8, lines 145–150
Come, stranger, try the games
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Laodamas — δεῦρʼ ἄγε καὶ σύ, ξεῖνε πάτερ, πείρησαι ἀέθλων, εἴ τινά που δεδάηκας· ἔοικε δέ σʼ ἴδμεν ἀέθλους· οὐ μὲν γὰρ μεῖζον κλέος ἀνέρος ὄφρα κʼ ἔῃσιν, ἤ ὅ τι ποσσίν τε ῥέξῃ καὶ χερσὶν ἑῇσιν. ἀλλʼ ἄγε πείρησαι, σκέδασον δʼ ἀπὸ κήδεα θυμοῦ. σοὶ δʼ ὁδὸς οὐκέτι δηρὸν ἀπέσσεται, ἀλλά τοι ἤδη
Come here, you too, stranger father, make trial of the games, if perhaps you have learned any; and it is likely you know games. For no glory is greater for a man, while ever he lives, than what he achieves with his feet and with his own hands. But come, make trial, and scatter the cares from your heart. And for you the journey will no longer be far off for long, but already —
Word by word
The setting
The king's son Laodamas speaks directly to Odysseus, inviting him to take part in the games. (The stranger is still unnamed to the Phaeacians.)
A note on this passage
Laodamas invites the guest in directly: come, stranger, try the games — surely you know some. He offers a piece of heroic wisdom: a man wins no greater glory than what he does with his own hands and feet. Then, gently, put your cares aside; your passage home is close now.
The speech is courteous and almost kind, and every line presses a nerve. He preaches athletic glory to the sacker of Troy, urges him to shed griefs whose size he cannot guess, and promises a homecoming to the one man who has wanted nothing else for twenty years. The kindness is real; so is the wound it reopens.
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