Odyssey 9.1 · Book 9, lines 1–4
Odysseus answers, and praises the singer
Read the full text in our reader
τὸν δʼ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς· Ἀλκίνοε κρεῖον, πάντων ἀριδείκετε λαῶν, ἦ τοι μὲν τόδε καλὸν ἀκουέμεν ἐστὶν ἀοιδοῦ τοιοῦδʼ οἷος ὅδʼ ἐστί, θεοῖς ἐναλίγκιος αὐδήν.
Answering him, resourceful Odysseus spoke: Lord Alcinous, most eminent of all peoples, truly this is a fine thing, to listen to such a singer as this one is, like the gods in voice.
Word by word
The setting
At the Phaeacian court, after Demodocus has sung of Troy and reduced the disguised stranger to tears, King Alcinous has asked the guest who he is. Now the guest replies — and Book 9, the most famous stretch of the poem, is his answer.
A note on this passage
Odysseus takes up the tale. His first words are not about himself but a courtesy to his host and a tribute to the singer: nothing is finer, he says, than to hear a bard godlike in voice. The man of many wiles opens with grace, not boasting.
Under the compliment sits the poem's own claim for itself. The hero who will now spend four books as a storyteller, holding a hall spellbound, first honors the art of song — the art that keeps a man's name alive. His praise of the singer is the poem quietly praising the thing that will make Odysseus immortal.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.1 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 9.1 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.1/