Odyssey 8.190 · Book 8, lines 190–193
The throw that clears every mark
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βόμβησεν δὲ λίθος· κατὰ δʼ ἔπτηξαν ποτὶ γαίῃ Φαίηκες δολιχήρετμοι, ναυσίκλυτοι ἄνδρες, λᾶος ὑπὸ ῥιπῆς· ὁ δʼ ὑπέρπτατο σήματα πάντων ῥίμφα θέων ἀπὸ χειρός. ἔθηκε δὲ τέρματʼ Ἀθήνη
And the stone hummed; and down they cowered to the ground — the Phaeacians of long oars, men famed for ships, beneath the rush of the stone; and it flew over the marks of all, flying swiftly from his hand. And Athena set the boundary-marks.
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The setting
The discus is in the air. The seafaring Phaeacians, expert at all things to do with ships, duck as it screams past — and it clears every mark thrown before it.
A note on this passage
The stone hums as it goes, and the Phaeacians cower to the ground under its rush; it flies clean over all the earlier marks. Athena, unseen, steps in to set down the point where it fell.
Homer makes the Phaeacians flinch from a landsman's cast, and their epithets carry the sting: 'long-oared,' 'famed for ships,' the men proud of their one great skill are shown small beside the stranger. That a goddess herself marks the throw tells the reader, before any Phaeacian says a word, that this is no ordinary man.
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