Odyssey 8.24 · Book 8, lines 24–25
The king rises to speak
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεί ῥʼ ἤγερθεν ὁμηγερέες τʼ ἐγένοντο, τοῖσιν δʼ Ἀλκίνοος ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπε·
But when they were gathered and had come assembled together, among them Alcinous spoke in assembly and addressed them:
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The setting
The Phaeacians have assembled and Athena has glorified the stranger among them. Now their king, Alcinous, stands to open the meeting and put the stranger's need before the people.
A note on this passage
A connecting formula. Once the Phaeacians have gathered and taken their places, King Alcinous stands and opens the session. The paired verbs — ‘spoke in assembly and addressed them’ — are the fixed language of a public speech beginning.
The small point worth marking is how smoothly this assembly works. A herald (a goddess, in fact) calls it, the people come, the king presides, business proceeds. Set beside the assembly of Book 2, where Telemachus calls the Ithacans together and the suitors simply talk him down, Scheria shows a polis that still functions. The contrast is part of the poem's argument about what Odysseus is sailing home to repair.
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Odyssey 8.24 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.24/