Odyssey 9.170 · Book 9, lines 170–176
Odysseus resolves to test the strangers
Read the full text in our reader
ἦμος δʼ ἠριγένεια φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς, καὶ τότʼ ἐγὼν ἀγορὴν θέμενος μετὰ πᾶσιν ἔειπον·
Odysseus — ἄλλοι μὲν νῦν μίμνετʼ, ἐμοὶ ἐρίηρες ἑταῖροι· αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ σὺν νηί τʼ ἐμῇ καὶ ἐμοῖς ἑτάροισιν ἐλθὼν τῶνδʼ ἀνδρῶν πειρήσομαι, οἵ τινές εἰσιν, ἤ ῥʼ οἵ γʼ ὑβρισταί τε καὶ ἄγριοι οὐδὲ δίκαιοι, ἦε φιλόξεινοι, καί σφιν νόος ἐστὶ θεουδής.
And when early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, then I called an assembly and spoke among them all: The rest of you now wait here, my trusty companions; but I, with my own ship and my own crew, will go and make trial of these men, to learn who they are — whether they are violent and savage, with no justice in them, or hospitable, and in them is a god-fearing mind.
Word by word
The setting
A new day. Odysseus gathers his crews and lays out his plan: the rest will hold on the island while he takes his own ship across to learn what kind of men the Cyclopes are — lawless, or people who honour strangers and the gods.
A note on this passage
After the dawn-formula, Odysseus calls the crews together and speaks. He will not commit the fleet: the others wait while he takes one ship to find out who these neighbours are. His test is put as a single question — are they violent and unjust, or hospitable and god-fearing?
The undercurrent is the question itself. Odysseus is measuring the Cyclopes by the code of xenia, the guest-law under Zeus that binds host and stranger. To ask ‘are they hospitable and god-fearing?’ is to assume that hospitality is the axis a people turn on. Polyphemus will answer by placing himself outside that code entirely — and the very curiosity that frames the test is what walks Odysseus into the cave.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.170 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 9.170 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.170/