Odyssey 8.178 · Book 8, lines 178–180
‘No novice at games’ — the boast begins
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ὤρινάς μοι θυμὸν ἐνὶ στήθεσσι φίλοισιν εἰπὼν οὐ κατὰ κόσμον. ἐγὼ δʼ οὐ νῆις ἀέθλων, ὡς σύ γε μυθεῖαι, ἀλλʼ ἐν πρώτοισιν ὀίω
You have stirred the heart in my breast, my own, by speaking not in due order. But I am not unskilled in games, as you claim, but among the foremost I think I was —
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The setting
Provoked at last, Odysseus rejects Euryalus's charge that he is no athlete — and begins the boast that will end with the greatest throw of the games. His speech continues past these lines.
A note on this passage
Odysseus admits the hit: the words have stirred the heart in his chest, because they were spoken without decency. Then he throws the charge back plainly — he is no beginner at games; once, he says, he stood among the best.
This is the disguise beginning to give way. The suppliant who ‘sat longing for home’ and waved the contests off is now a stirred θυμός, and in Homer a stirred heart is the prelude to deeds. The sentence breaks off mid-boast, and the poem leans into what comes next: the stranger will rise and hurl the discus past every Phaeacian mark. The taunt has done its work — it has made Odysseus prove himself.
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Odyssey 8.178 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.178/