Odyssey 8.463 · Book 8, line 463
Odysseus answers
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τὴν δʼ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς.
In answer resourceful Odysseus spoke to her:
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The setting
Nausicaa has just asked the stranger to remember her one day in his homeland. This single formulaic line introduces his reply.
A note on this passage
A single formulaic line hands the floor to Odysseus. The fixed epithet does the work: πολύμητις, ‘of many devices,’ the mind that always finds the turn.
The undercurrent is what that cunning is for here. Nausicaa has offered him a claim on his memory — and, beneath it, a hope. The man of many turns will honour her completely and refuse her entirely, and the epithet warns us the answer will be shaped with care.
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