Odyssey 8.8 · Book 8, lines 8–10
Athena, in the herald's shape
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εἰδομένη κήρυκι δαΐφρονος Ἀλκινόοιο, νόστον Ὀδυσσῆι μεγαλήτορι μητιόωσα, καί ῥα ἑκάστῳ φωτὶ παρισταμένη φάτο μῦθον·
In the likeness of the herald of wise Alcinous, devising a homecoming for great-hearted Odysseus, standing beside each man she spoke a word:
Word by word
The setting
Athena, invisible, is filling the assembly. She now takes the form of King Alcinous's herald to summon the Phaeacian leaders in person.
A note on this passage
Athena takes the shape of Alcinous's herald and moves through the crowd, summoning each man to the assembly. The narrator states her purpose flatly: she is contriving the stranger's homecoming.
The word for it is μητιόωσα, ‘devising,’ from the same root as μῆτις — the cunning that is Odysseus's own signature. The goddess of craft is plotting the return of the man of craft, the two intelligences working as one. And νόστον, ‘homecoming,’ stands first in its line: the single word the whole poem is bent toward, spoken here as Athena's design.
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