Odyssey 8.548 · Book 8, lines 548–551
Do not hide — tell me your name
Read the full text in our reader
τῷ νῦν μηδὲ σὺ κεῦθε νοήμασι κερδαλέοισιν ὅττι κέ σʼ εἴρωμαι· φάσθαι δέ σε κάλλιόν ἐστιν. εἴπʼ ὄνομʼ ὅττι σε κεῖθι κάλεον μήτηρ τε πατήρ τε ἄλλοι θʼ οἳ κατὰ ἄστυ καὶ οἳ περιναιετάουσιν.
So now do not you hide with crafty thoughts whatever I would ask you; to speak is far better for you. Tell the name by which they called you there, mother and father, and the others who dwell throughout the town and who dwell around it.
Word by word
The setting
Alcinous turns from principle to request. Having earned the right by his hospitality, he asks the guest not to conceal anything with clever evasions, and to tell the name his parents and townsfolk call him.
A note on this passage
The king finally asks the question the whole book has circled: who are you? He asks gently — do not hide behind crafty thoughts, speaking is better — but he asks directly, and for the name above all.
Odysseus is the master of the withheld name; he will soon tell Polyphemus that he is Nobody. Here a good host asks for the true one and stakes the request on candor over cunning — against the very kerdaléos, gainful cleverness, that is the hero's trademark. The poem sets Odysseus's defining craft against the plain courtesy owed to a man who has sheltered and fed him.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 8.548 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 8.548 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/8.548/