Odyssey 8.40 · Book 8, lines 40–42
The kings summoned to the hall
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κούροισιν μὲν ταῦτʼ ἐπιτέλλομαι· αὐτὰρ οἱ ἄλλοι σκηπτοῦχοι βασιλῆες ἐμὰ πρὸς δώματα καλὰ ἔρχεσθʼ, ὄφρα ξεῖνον ἐνὶ μεγάροισι φιλέωμεν,
To the young men I command this; but the others, the sceptred kings, come to my fair house, so that we may welcome the stranger in the halls,
Word by word
The setting
Alcinous divides his orders: that was for the young crew; now he turns to the other Phaeacian nobles — the sceptre-bearing kings — and bids them come to his house to help entertain the guest.
A note on this passage
Alcinous sorts his audience by rank: the crew has its task, and now the ‘sceptred kings’ — the leading Phaeacian nobles — are called to the palace to help receive the stranger. The line draws the social map of Scheria in a breath.
The undercurrent is the word for the guest. ξεῖνος means both ‘stranger’ and ‘guest-friend’: the same term for the unknown man and for the sacred bond hospitality turns him into. Alcinous does not yet know who this is, but the moment he houses and feeds him, xenia binds them — a tie the whole poem treats as under the eye of Zeus.
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