Odyssey 8.370 · Book 8, lines 370–373
The purple ball
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Ἀλκίνοος δʼ Ἅλιον καὶ Λαοδάμαντα κέλευσεν μουνὰξ ὀρχήσασθαι, ἐπεί σφισιν οὔ τις ἔριζεν. οἱ δʼ ἐπεὶ οὖν σφαῖραν καλὴν μετὰ χερσὶν ἕλοντο, πορφυρέην, τήν σφιν Πόλυβος ποίησε δαΐφρων,
And Alcinous bade Halius and Laodamas to dance alone, since no one contended with them. So they, when they had taken a fine ball in their hands — a purple one, which skilled Polybus had made for them —
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The setting
After the song, Alcinous turns the entertainment to dance. He summons his two finest dancers, Halius and Laodamas, to perform a solo ball-dance with a ball crafted for them by Polybus.
A note on this passage
Alcinous calls on two dancers, Halius and Laodamas, to perform by themselves, since no one could rival them. They take up a fine purple ball, made for them by the skilled craftsman Polybus.
The island answers its visitor's presence not with a contest but with a display. Where the earlier games curdled into Euryalus's insult and Odysseus's furious throw, the mood is now pure artistry — a ball, a dance, a named maker's handiwork. Homer even credits the ball's craftsman by name, the same close attention he gives a well-built ship: skill is worth recording for its own sake.
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