Odyssey 9.121 · Book 9, lines 121–124
An island no man works
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ἄλγεα πάσχουσιν κορυφὰς ὀρέων ἐφέποντες. οὔτʼ ἄρα ποίμνῃσιν καταΐσχεται οὔτʼ ἀρότοισιν, ἀλλʼ ἥ γʼ ἄσπαρτος καὶ ἀνήροτος ἤματα πάντα ἀνδρῶν χηρεύει, βόσκει δέ τε μηκάδας αἶγας.
They suffer hardships, ranging over the mountain peaks. The island is held neither by flocks nor by tilled fields, but it, unsown and unploughed all its days lies empty of men, and it feeds only the bleating goats.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus is describing the small wild island off the Cyclopes' coast, where his ships will land. Line 121 finishes the picture of the hunters who never come here — men who elsewhere wear themselves out chasing game over the peaks. The island is left entirely to itself.
A note on this passage
The lines finish one thought and open another. First the hunters who never come here — men who elsewhere wear themselves out on the mountain ridges after game. Then the island itself: no flocks graze it, no plough turns it; unsown and unploughed year after year, empty of men, it feeds nothing but wild goats.
Under the survey is a quiet judgment. Homer measures land the way a farmer would — by what it is not yielding. The island is not barren; it is unused, and that near-miss is the point. The same eye will soon fall on the Cyclopes, who own good country and waste it. A description of empty ground is already a description of a people who do not work.
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