Odyssey 8.377 · Book 8, lines 377–380
The dance and the din
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σφαίρῃ ἀνʼ ἰθὺν πειρήσαντο, ὠρχείσθην δὴ ἔπειτα ποτὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ ταρφέʼ ἀμειβομένω· κοῦροι δʼ ἐπελήκεον ἄλλοι ἑστεῶτες κατʼ ἀγῶνα, πολὺς δʼ ὑπὸ κόμπος ὀρώρει.
But when they had made trial with the ball straight up, then the two danced next upon the bounteous earth, changing places thick and fast; and the other youths stood about the ring and beat time, and a great din rose up beneath them.
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The setting
Having tested the ball overhead, the two dancers launch into the dance itself, crossing the ground and exchanging places rapidly while the other young men clap out the rhythm and a loud applause rises.
A note on this passage
First the two dancers test the ball straight overhead; then they break into the dance proper, weaving over the ground and swapping places at speed, while the young men ringed around them clap out the beat. The noise swells.
This is the sound of a people at ease. The clapped rhythm and rising roar (κόμπος) turn a two-man turn into something the whole crowd makes together. Homer, who elsewhere fills the ground with the din of battle, here lets the same earth ring with applause — and calls it πουλυβότειρα, the 'bounteous' earth, the epithet of a land that feeds rather than kills.
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