Odyssey 8.507 · Book 8, lines 507–510
Three fates for the horse — and the true one
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ἠὲ διαπλῆξαι κοῖλον δόρυ νηλέι χαλκῷ, ἢ κατὰ πετράων βαλέειν ἐρύσαντας ἐπʼ ἄκρης, ἢ ἐάαν μέγʼ ἄγαλμα θεῶν θελκτήριον εἶναι, τῇ περ δὴ καὶ ἔπειτα τελευτήσεσθαι ἔμελλεν·
either to cleave the hollow timber apart with pitiless bronze, or to drag it to the height and hurl it down the rocks, or to let it stand as a great offering to appease the gods — which was indeed the very way it was afterward destined to end.
Word by word
The setting
Demodocus lists the three plans the Trojans weighed for the horse: to split it open with bronze, to drag it to the cliff-edge and pitch it down, or to leave it standing as an offering to appease the gods. The poem tells us which choice was fated to win.
A note on this passage
The three options are laid out plainly, and two of them would have saved the city: break the horse open with bronze, or drag it to the cliff and pitch it down. The third — to leave it standing as an offering that would please the gods — is the choice that destroys them.
The undercurrent is in the last line: this was 'the very way it was destined to end.' The Trojans debate as if the outcome were open, but the song has already sealed it. Their piety is the trap — the wish to honor the gods is exactly what carries the ambush into the citadel. Homer sets human deliberation and fixed fate in the same breath, and lets the reader watch a free-seeming choice fall into the groove that was always cut for it.
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