Odyssey 8.87 · Book 8, lines 87–90
Weeping between the songs
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ἦ τοι ὅτε λήξειεν ἀείδων θεῖος ἀοιδός, δάκρυ ὀμορξάμενος κεφαλῆς ἄπο φᾶρος ἕλεσκε καὶ δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον ἑλὼν σπείσασκε θεοῖσιν· αὐτὰρ ὅτʼ ἂψ ἄρχοιτο καὶ ὀτρύνειαν ἀείδειν
Truly, whenever the divine bard would leave off his singing, he would wipe the tears away and draw the cloak from his head, and, taking the double cup, would pour a libation to the gods; but whenever he began again, and they urged him to sing—
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus, hidden under his cloak, has been weeping at Demodocus's song. Now Homer shows the rhythm of his concealment: each time the bard pauses he recovers and pours to the gods; each time the song resumes, the grief returns.
A note on this passage
Homer catches the repeated motion. Each time the divine bard left off singing, Odysseus would wipe away his tears, draw the cloak from his head, and pour a libation to the gods; but each time the Phaeacians urged Demodocus to begin again, he would cover himself and weep once more.
The grief comes in waves, timed to the song. Between verses Odysseus is a guest again, dry-eyed, pious, pouring wine to heaven; inside the verses he is undone. The iterative tenses — 'would wipe,' 'would draw,' 'would pour' — make it a pattern, not a single lapse, and the pattern is unbearable precisely because he keeps having to compose himself and cannot stop the song. The line breaks off just as the singing starts again, the wave rising once more.
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