Odyssey 8.258 · Book 8, lines 258–260
The stewards ready the floor
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αἰσυμνῆται δὲ κριτοὶ ἐννέα πάντες ἀνέσταν δήμιοι, οἳ κατʼ ἀγῶνας ἐὺ πρήσσεσκον ἕκαστα, λείηναν δὲ χορόν, καλὸν δʼ εὔρυναν ἀγῶνα.
And the stewards, nine chosen, all stood up, public officers who managed each thing well throughout the contests; they smoothed the floor, and widened a fair ring.
Word by word
The setting
The king's order is carried out. Officials of the games step forward to prepare the ground for the dance.
A note on this passage
Nine chosen stewards get to their feet — the public officers who ran each event well through the games — and they level the dancing-floor and widen out a fair ring. Three lines of pure stage-preparation, the ground made ready for the dance.
The undercurrent is the quiet competence of Phaeacian civic life. These men are named by function, not by person: appointed officials who simply do the job well and clear the space. Homer rarely pauses on such ordinary order, and here it deepens the picture of Scheria as a place that works — a well-run society whose worst trouble, so far, has been one young man's rude tongue.
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Odyssey 8.258 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.258/