Odyssey 8.282 · Book 8, lines 282–284
He leaves for Lemnos
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ πάντα δόλον περὶ δέμνια χεῦεν, εἴσατʼ ἴμεν ἐς Λῆμνον, ἐυκτίμενον πτολίεθρον, ἥ οἱ γαιάων πολὺ φιλτάτη ἐστὶν ἁπασέων.
But when indeed he had poured all the snare about the bed, he made as to go to Lemnos, that well-built citadel, which of all lands is far the dearest to him.
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The setting
The net is laid over the whole bed. Now the smith-god departs, feigning a journey, so that the lovers will think the house is empty. He heads for Lemnos, the island most his own.
A note on this passage
Three lines finish the setup and remove the trapper from his own trap. Once the snare covers the whole bed, Hephaestus makes as if to sail for Lemnos — the pretended absence that any ambush needs. The last line names the island as the land he loves best of all.
The undercurrent is why Lemnos. It is the island where he crashed to earth when Zeus flung him from Olympus, and the seat of his worship; the smith calls dearest the place bound up with his fall and his lameness. Even the feint carries a private ache — the wronged husband's alibi points, of all places, home to the ground of his oldest wound.
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