Odyssey 8.301 · Book 8, lines 301–305
He comes home to his shame
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αὖτις ὑποστρέψας πρὶν Λήμνου γαῖαν ἱκέσθαι· Ἠέλιος γάρ οἱ σκοπιὴν ἔχεν εἶπέ τε μῦθον. βῆ δʼ ἴμεναι πρὸς δῶμα φίλον τετιημένος ἦτορ· ἔστη δʼ ἐν προθύροισι, χόλος δέ μιν ἄγριος ᾕρει· σμερδαλέον δʼ ἐβόησε, γέγωνέ τε πᾶσι θεοῖσιν·
Turning back again before reaching the land of Lemnos — for the Sun had kept the watch for him and told him the tale, he set out for his house, his own, grieving at heart; he stood in the doorway, and wild anger seized him; terribly he cried out, and called out to all the gods:
Word by word
The setting
Demodocus's song of Ares and Aphrodite. The Sun has caught the lovers and warned the wronged husband, the smith-god Hephaestus, who had set an invisible snare over his bed and pretended to leave for Lemnos.
A note on this passage
Hephaestus comes home. The Sun, his lookout, has told him what everyone but him already knew, and he turns back short of Lemnos to catch the lovers in the act. He stops in his own doorway, seized by a wild anger, and bellows for the whole company of heaven to come and look.
The smith is the least glamorous of the gods, and the scene knows it. His weapon is not a spear but a summons — he will not strike Ares, he will exhibit him. The husband's revenge in this song is a matter of being seen: he calls the gods as witnesses before he has said one word of his case.
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