Odyssey 9.151 · Book 9, lines 151–155
Dawn on the goat island
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ἔνθα δʼ ἀποβρίξαντες ἐμείναμεν Ἠῶ δῖαν. ἦμος δʼ ἠριγένεια φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς, νῆσον θαυμάζοντες ἐδινεόμεσθα κατʼ αὐτήν. ὦρσαν δὲ νύμφαι, κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο, αἶγας ὀρεσκῴους ἵνα δειπνήσειαν ἑταῖροι.
There we sank into sleep and awaited bright Dawn. When early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, marveling at the island we roamed about it. And the nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, roused the mountain goats, so that my companions might dine.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus and his men have beached on the wooded, uninhabited island that lies off the land of the Cyclopes. After a night's sleep, morning comes, and the nymphs send down wild goats for the crews to hunt.
A note on this passage
The passage is a quiet morning. The men sleep on the shore, wake to the fixed dawn-formula, and spend the day exploring the empty island. Then the world provides: the nymphs, daughters of Zeus, drive the mountain goats within reach so the crews can eat.
The undercurrent is ease. This island feeds men without labour or danger — game handed over by the gods themselves. Homer sets this untroubled plenty deliberately against what waits across the water, where another herdsman keeps his flocks and no god will help a stranger. The reader is being shown the last safe meal before the cave.
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