Odyssey 8.91 · Book 8, lines 91–95
The song that only the king can read
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Φαιήκων οἱ ἄριστοι, ἐπεὶ τέρποντʼ ἐπέεσσιν, ἂψ Ὀδυσεὺς κατὰ κρᾶτα καλυψάμενος γοάασκεν. ἔνθʼ ἄλλους μὲν πάντας ἐλάνθανε δάκρυα λείβων, Ἀλκίνοος δέ μιν οἶος ἐπεφράσατʼ ἠδʼ ἐνόησεν ἥμενος ἄγχʼ αὐτοῦ, βαρὺ δὲ στενάχοντος ἄκουσεν.
the noble Phaeacians when they took delight in the singing, Odysseus once more covering his head would weep. There, from all the rest, he escaped notice as he shed tears, but Alcinous alone marked him and noticed, seated close beside him, and heard him groaning heavily.
Word by word
The setting
The blind bard Demodocus has been singing of Troy. Each time he sings, the still-unnamed stranger — Odysseus — weeps and hides it; each time the bard pauses, the Phaeacian nobles call for more.
A note on this passage
As the Phaeacians take simple delight in the bard's song, the same song is undoing Odysseus. He pulls his cloak over his head and weeps, and the crowd, lost in the music, misses it entirely. Only the king, seated at his very elbow, catches the covered face and the low sound of grief.
The moment turns on distance. A hall full of people cannot see the man breaking apart in its midst; the one who notices is the one placed closest. Homer makes the private cost of the public song visible to a single witness — and it is the host, whose duty of welcome now quietly includes reading a guest's hidden pain.
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