Odyssey 8.169 · Book 8, lines 169–173
The plain man a god crowns with speech
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ἄλλος μὲν γάρ τʼ εἶδος ἀκιδνότερος πέλει ἀνήρ, ἀλλὰ θεὸς μορφὴν ἔπεσι στέφει, οἱ δέ τʼ ἐς αὐτὸν τερπόμενοι λεύσσουσιν· ὁ δʼ ἀσφαλέως ἀγορεύει αἰδοῖ μειλιχίῃ, μετὰ δὲ πρέπει ἀγρομένοισιν, ἐρχόμενον δʼ ἀνὰ ἄστυ θεὸν ὣς εἰσορόωσιν.
For one man is rather mean in looks, but a god crowns his words with beauty, and, delighting, they gaze upon him; and he speaks on unfalteringly, with winning modesty, and stands out among the gathered, and as he goes through the town, they gaze on him like a god.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus continues his answer, drawing the portrait of a man plain to look at but graced by the gods with the power of speech.
A note on this passage
The maxim unfolds into a portrait. A plain-looking man may have his words wreathed in beauty by a god, so that people watch him with pleasure; he speaks with sure, gentle modesty, stands out in any gathering, and is gazed at like a god as he walks through the town.
Odysseus is describing himself, in the third person and without saying so. He is the man of no special beauty whose speech a goddess crowns — Athena will do exactly this to him before the Phaeacians. The general law is really a self-defense: worth lives in the mind and the voice, not the face, and the speaker quietly claims the gift he is demonstrating even as he names it.
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