Odyssey 8.381 · Book 8, lines 381–384
Odysseus praises the dancers
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δὴ τότʼ ἄρʼ Ἀλκίνοον προσεφώνεε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς·
Odysseus — Ἀλκίνοε κρεῖον, πάντων ἀριδείκετε λαῶν, ἠμὲν ἀπείλησας βητάρμονας εἶναι ἀρίστους, ἠδʼ ἄρʼ ἑτοῖμα τέτυκτο· σέβας μʼ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα.
Then indeed noble Odysseus addressed Alcinous: Lord Alcinous, most illustrious of all peoples, you boasted that your dancers were the best — and it has proved true. Awe holds me as I look on.
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The setting
Watching the ball-dance, Odysseus breaks his silence to compliment his host. He grants that Alcinous's earlier boast about his dancers has been made good, and confesses his wonder at the spectacle.
A note on this passage
Odysseus speaks — his first words since the games. He turns to his host with courtesy: Alcinous had claimed his dancers were the finest, and Odysseus grants it freely. Wonder holds him as he watches.
This is the same man Euryalus mocked as a mere trader a hundred lines back. Now, unprompted, he pays the court a generous compliment, and reaches for σέβας — the word for religious awe — over a ball-game. Odysseus is managing his hosts, warming the room before he must at last give his name. The flattery is real admiration and pure tactics at once.
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