Odyssey 8.46 · Book 8, lines 46–49
The crew goes down to the sea
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ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας ἡγήσατο, τοὶ δʼ ἅμʼ ἕποντο σκηπτοῦχοι· κῆρυξ δὲ μετῴχετο θεῖον ἀοιδόν. κούρω δὲ κρινθέντε δύω καὶ πεντήκοντα βήτην, ὡς ἐκέλευσʼ, ἐπὶ θῖνʼ ἁλὸς ἀτρυγέτοιο.
So speaking, he led the way, and they followed together, the sceptred ones; and a herald went to fetch the divine singer. And the fifty-two chosen young men went, as he bade, to the shore of the barren sea.
Word by word
The setting
Alcinous's speech ends; the narrator resumes. The king leads the nobles to the palace while a herald fetches the bard, and the chosen fifty-two young men go down to the shore.
A note on this passage
The orders become action, briskly. Alcinous leads off and the nobles follow; a herald goes for the singer; the fifty-two chosen youths head down to the barren sea. Homer executes each command in turn, the narration echoing the speech almost word for word.
The undercurrent is the epithet ‘barren’ (ἀτρύγετος) laid on the sea. It literally means ‘unharvested’ — the sea yields no crop, gives back nothing you can reap. Over a scene of cheerful errand-running it is a small cold note: this is the element that has kept Odysseus from home for years, and the word remembers that even as the young men trot down to it.
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