Odyssey 8.541 · Book 8, lines 541–543
Alcinous halts the song
Read the full text in our reader
Alcinous — ὁ ξεῖνος· μάλα πού μιν ἄχος φρένας ἀμφιβέβηκεν. ἀλλʼ ἄγʼ ὁ μὲν σχεθέτω, ἵνʼ ὁμῶς τερπώμεθα πάντες, ξεινοδόκοι καὶ ξεῖνος, ἐπεὶ πολὺ κάλλιον οὕτως·
the stranger; surely, I think, grief has wrapped his heart. But come, let him cease, so that we all may take joy alike, hosts and guest, since so it is far better.
Word by word
The setting
Alcinous alone has seen the stranger weep at Demodocus's song of Troy. Still not knowing who his guest is, the king interrupts the bard so the whole hall — hosts and guest together — can share the pleasure of the feast.
A note on this passage
Alcinous does the courteous thing: he stops the song rather than let a guest weep on. He frames it as everyone's pleasure, not the stranger's pain — so that we may all take joy alike. This is tact, not interrogation, and it comes before any question about who the man is.
The king has noticed what no one else in the hall has, and he keeps the noticing quiet. He calls the song off for the room's sake, sparing the guest the shame of being watched as he cries. The whole machinery of xenia turns on this delicacy: a host who protects a stranger's face before the stranger even has a name.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 8.541 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 8.541 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.541/