Odyssey 9.156 · Book 9, lines 156–160
The hunt, and the shares
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αὐτίκα καμπύλα τόξα καὶ αἰγανέας δολιχαύλους εἱλόμεθʼ ἐκ νηῶν, διὰ δὲ τρίχα κοσμηθέντες βάλλομεν· αἶψα δʼ ἔδωκε θεὸς μενοεικέα θήρην. νῆες μέν μοι ἕποντο δυώδεκα, ἐς δὲ ἑκάστην ἐννέα λάγχανον αἶγες· ἐμοὶ δὲ δέκʼ ἔξελον οἴῳ.
At once we took our curved bows and long-socketed javelins from the ships, and, split into three bands, we let fly; and quickly a god gave us a plentiful catch. Twelve ships followed me, and to each fell nine goats, but for me alone they set apart ten.
Word by word
The setting
The nymphs have sent the goats. Now the men arm for the hunt, split into companies, and take a great haul; Odysseus then records how the catch was divided among his twelve ships.
A note on this passage
The lines are a hunt done as procedure: bows and javelins fetched from the ships, the men marshalled in three bands, the throw, and a god's gift of abundant game. Then the exact bookkeeping of the spoil — nine goats to each of the twelve ships, ten set apart for Odysseus alone.
The undercurrent is the leader's share. The count is precise and slightly larger for the captain, the plain arithmetic of a world where rank is fed first. It is the same fair-division that governs a warrior's honour before Troy, transplanted to a beach — and a reminder that the twelve ships are still whole here, a fleet the poem is about to start emptying.
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