Odyssey 8.211 · Book 8, lines 211–213
I shrink from no man's challenge
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δήμῳ ἐν ἀλλοδαπῷ· ἕο δʼ αὐτοῦ πάντα κολούει. τῶν δʼ ἄλλων οὔ πέρ τινʼ ἀναίνομαι οὐδʼ ἀθερίζω, ἀλλʼ ἐθέλω ἴδμεν καὶ πειρηθήμεναι ἄντην.
In a foreign land he cripples all his own advantage; yet of the rest I refuse no one, nor do I slight him, but I am willing to learn and be tested face to face.
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The setting
Odysseus, stung by Euryalus's jibe that he is a mere trader and no athlete, is answering the Phaeacians. He has just said a guest is a fool to strive against his host; now he turns to everyone else.
A note on this passage
Odysseus finishes a piece of courtesy — a man who challenges his host abroad only harms himself — and then opens the door wide. Toward everyone else he refuses no contest and scorns no one; he simply wants to be put to the test, out in the open. It is the voice of a man who knows exactly what he can do.
The quiet thing is the sting under the calm. Euryalus called him a trafficker, not a competitor; Odysseus does not raise his voice but answers the insult with an offer to prove it. ἴδμεν, ‘to know,’ sits beside ‘be tested’: for this hero, knowing a man and trying him in contest are the same act.
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