Odyssey 8.186 · Book 8, lines 186–189
Cloak and all, he seizes the discus
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ἦ ῥα καὶ αὐτῷ φάρει ἀναΐξας λάβε δίσκον μείζονα καὶ πάχετον, στιβαρώτερον οὐκ ὀλίγον περ ἢ οἵῳ Φαίηκες ἐδίσκεον ἀλλήλοισι. τόν ῥα περιστρέψας ἧκε στιβαρῆς ἀπὸ χειρός,
So he spoke, and then, with his very cloak on, springing up he seized a discus, bigger and thicker, more massive by not a little than the one the Phaeacians used to throw among themselves. This, whirling round, he let fly from his sturdy hand,
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The setting
His words done, Odysseus acts. Without even shedding his cloak, he snatches up a discus larger and heavier than the one the Phaeacians have been throwing, and lets it fly.
A note on this passage
So he spoke, and turned words into deed. Still in his cloak, he springs up, takes a discus bigger and heavier than the Phaeacians' own, whirls it, and hurls it from his sturdy hand.
The telling details are the cloak left on and the heavier stone. He does not strip, does not warm up, does not choose an easy weight. Homer measures the man's strength by the handicaps he ignores: a stranger who throws a heavier disk in his street clothes has answered the charge that he is no athlete without needing another word.
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