Odyssey 8.446 · Book 8, lines 446–450
The knot Circe taught him
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ τό γʼ ἄκουσε πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, αὐτίκʼ ἐπήρτυε πῶμα, θοῶς δʼ ἐπὶ δεσμὸν ἴηλεν ποικίλον, ὅν ποτέ μιν δέδαε φρεσὶ πότνια Κίρκη· αὐτόδιον δʼ ἄρα μιν ταμίη λούσασθαι ἀνώγει ἔς ῥʼ ἀσάμινθον βάνθʼ· ὁ δʼ ἄρ ἀσπασίως ἴδε θυμῷ
But when much-enduring noble Odysseus heard this, at once he fitted the lid and swiftly cast upon it an intricate knot, which lady Circe had once taught him in his wits. Then straightway the housekeeper bade him bathe; and he stepped into the bathing-tub, and gladly he beheld it in his heart.
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The setting
Odysseus has just been warned to secure the chest himself. The still-unnamed guest obeys, then goes to bathe.
A note on this passage
Much-enduring Odysseus does exactly as told: he fits the lid and quickly binds it with an intricate knot that Circe once taught him. Then the housekeeper bids him bathe, and he gladly steps into the warm tub.
The knot is a small, telling detail. The skill comes from Circe, the enchantress whose year on Aiaia the poem has not yet let him narrate to the Phaeacians. For an instant the disguised guest reaches back into his own untold story, using a scrap of hard-won knowledge that no one at this table knows he carries.
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