Odyssey 8.83 · Book 8, lines 83–86
Odysseus hides his face
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ταῦτʼ ἄρʼ ἀοιδὸς ἄειδε περικλυτός· αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς πορφύρεον μέγα φᾶρος ἑλὼν χερσὶ στιβαρῇσι κὰκ κεφαλῆς εἴρυσσε, κάλυψε δὲ καλὰ πρόσωπα· αἴδετο γὰρ Φαίηκας ὑπʼ ὀφρύσι δάκρυα λείβων.
These things the far-famed bard was singing; but Odysseus, taking his great purple cloak in his stout hands, drew it down over his head and hid his handsome face; for he was ashamed before the Phaeacians to let tears fall beneath his brows.
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The setting
As the far-famed bard sings of Troy, the still-unnamed stranger — Odysseus himself — is overcome. He draws his great cloak over his head to weep unseen, ashamed to be seen crying before his hosts.
A note on this passage
The far-famed bard sings on; and Odysseus, hearing his own war sung, takes his great purple cloak in his strong hands, pulls it down over his head, and hides his face. He is ashamed to let the Phaeacians see the tears falling from under his brows.
This is the poem's quietest and strangest scene: a hero weeping at the story of his own glory. The song is kleos, the very fame a warrior lives and dies for — and to the man himself it comes as grief, not triumph. The cloak he pulls over his face is the gesture of a mourner. Odysseus hides not from the enemy but from his hosts' eyes, and from a past that a stranger's song has made suddenly present.
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