Odyssey 8.346 · Book 8, lines 346–348
Poseidon stands surety for Ares
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καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·
Poseidon — λῦσον· ἐγὼ δέ τοι αὐτὸν ὑπίσχομαι, ὡς σὺ κελεύεις, τίσειν αἴσιμα πάντα μετʼ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν.
And speaking to him he addressed winged words: Free him! And I promise you, just as you bid, that he will pay all that is fitting among the immortal gods.
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The setting
Poseidon alone has not laughed; he keeps asking Hephaestus to release Ares. Now he speaks his request aloud.
A note on this passage
Poseidon speaks the standard formula — winged words — and gives his pledge: free Ares now, and he himself guarantees that the war-god will pay in full every fitting penalty before the assembled gods. It is the language of a court, transplanted to Olympus.
The scene turns on the honor economy the poem takes seriously everywhere else. A debt must be discharged, and a third party can stand surety for it. Poseidon puts his own standing on the line to end the spectacle and spare a fellow god humiliation. The comedy borrows the solemn machinery of oaths and payments and lets it grind through a quarrel about adultery.
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