The Siren Vase — Odysseus bound to the mast; Attic red-figure, c. 480 BC, British Museum
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Odyssey 8.313 · Book 8, lines 313–314

Look where they lie in my bed

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Hephaestus — ἀλλʼ ὄψεσθʼ, ἵνα τώ γε καθεύδετον ἐν φιλότητι εἰς ἐμὰ δέμνια βάντες, ἐγὼ δʼ ὁρόων ἀκάχημαι.

But look, where these two lie together in love, having climbed into my bed, and I, watching, grieve.

Word by word

Hephaestus
ἀλλʼall’butὄψεσθʼópsesth’look,ἵναhínawhereτώtṓthese twoγεge(indeed)καθεύδετονkatheúdetonsleepἐνeninφιλότητιphilótētiloveεἰςeisintoἐμὰemàmyδέμνιαdémniabedβάντεςbánteshaving gone,ἐγὼegṑIδʼd’(and)ὁρόωνhoróōnwatchingἀκάχημαιakáchēmaiam grieved.

The setting

Still addressing the gods, Hephaestus points them to the trapped lovers themselves, caught fast in his own bed.

A note on this passage

The invitation becomes a display. Hephaestus points the gods to the sight itself — the two of them asleep in love, tangled in his own bed — while he stands outside it, looking on, and grieving.

The cruelty of his revenge is precisely the looking. He built the trap not to hurt the lovers but to freeze them in view, and he sets his own grief inside the same frame: I watch, and I ache. The husband turns his humiliation into a tableau, then insists that everyone share his vantage on it.

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