Odyssey 8.361 · Book 8, lines 361–366
The lovers set free
Read the full text in our reader
αὐτίκʼ ἀναΐξαντε ὁ μὲν Θρῄκηνδε βεβήκει, ἡ δʼ ἄρα Κύπρον ἵκανε φιλομμειδὴς Ἀφροδίτη, ἐς Πάφον· ἔνθα δέ οἱ τέμενος βωμός τε θυήεις. ἔνθα δέ μιν Χάριτες λοῦσαν καὶ χρῖσαν ἐλαίῳ ἀμβρότῳ, οἷα θεοὺς ἐπενήνοθεν αἰὲν ἐόντας, ἀμφὶ δὲ εἵματα ἕσσαν ἐπήρατα, θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι.
At once the two sprang apart — the one had gone to Thrace, and she, laughter-loving Aphrodite, came to Cyprus, to Paphos, where her precinct is and her fragrant altar. There the Graces bathed her and anointed her with ambrosial oil, such as gleams upon the ever-living gods, and clothed her in lovely garments, a wonder to behold.
Word by word
The setting
The close of Demodocus's song of Ares and Aphrodite. Hephaestus has loosed the invisible net, and the two exposed lovers spring apart and flee — Ares north to Thrace, Aphrodite to her sanctuary on Cyprus, where the Graces tend her.
A note on this passage
The song's close. Freed from the invisible net, the two lovers do not linger: Ares bolts north to warlike Thrace, Aphrodite south to Cyprus, to her own sanctuary at Paphos. There the Graces wash her, oil her, and dress her afresh.
The comedy ends in pure grace. Homer spends his last lines not on the humiliation but on Aphrodite restored — bathed in the oil that makes gods gleam, clothed 'a wonder to behold.' The goddess of desire cannot be shamed for long: the net catches her, and the poem lets her walk out of it lovelier than before. It is a lightness set deliberately against the tears Odysseus will soon weep.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 8.361 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 8.361 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.361/