Odyssey 9.193 · Book 9, lines 193–198
The twelve, and Maron's wine
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δὴ τότε τοὺς ἄλλους κελόμην ἐρίηρας ἑταίρους αὐτοῦ πὰρ νηί τε μένειν καὶ νῆα ἔρυσθαι, αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ κρίνας ἑτάρων δυοκαίδεκʼ ἀρίστους βῆν· ἀτὰρ αἴγεον ἀσκὸν ἔχον μέλανος οἴνοιο ἡδέος, ὅν μοι ἔδωκε Μάρων, Εὐάνθεος υἱός, ἱρεὺς Ἀπόλλωνος, ὃς Ἴσμαρον ἀμφιβεβήκει,
Then indeed I bade the rest, my trusty companions, to stay there beside the ship and to guard the ship, while I, choosing the twelve best of my comrades, set out; and I had a goatskin filled with dark wine, and sweet, which he gave me, Maron, son of Euanthes, priest of Apollo, who watched over Ismarus,
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus leaves most of the crew to guard the ship and takes twelve picked men inland — carrying a skin of extraordinary wine, whose origin he now stops to explain.
A note on this passage
Odysseus orders the rest of the crew to stay and guard the ship, picks the twelve best of his men, and sets off — carrying a goatskin of dark, sweet wine. At the mention of the wine the story pauses to tell where it came from: a gift from Maron, priest of Apollo at Ismarus.
The pause is a Homeric ring, and the wine is a planted weapon. It also ties this episode back to the poem's first raid: the sack of Ismarus, where Odysseus spared this priest. What he protected there — a servant of the god — now yields the very thing that will save him in the cave. The mercy and the rescue are quietly linked, one act of respect for the god's law earning the tool that undoes a creature who has none.
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