Odyssey 9.199 · Book 9, lines 199–203
Why the priest gave gifts
Read the full text in our reader
οὕνεκά μιν σὺν παιδὶ περισχόμεθʼ ἠδὲ γυναικὶ ἁζόμενοι· ᾤκει γὰρ ἐν ἄλσεϊ δενδρήεντι Φοίβου Ἀπόλλωνος. ὁ δέ μοι πόρεν ἀγλαὰ δῶρα· χρυσοῦ μέν μοι ἔδωκʼ ἐυεργέος ἑπτὰ τάλαντα, δῶκε δέ μοι κρητῆρα πανάργυρον, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
because we protected him, along with his child and his wife, out of reverence; for he dwelt in a wooded grove of Phoebus Apollo. And so he gave me splendid gifts: seven talents of well-wrought gold he gave me, and he gave me a mixing-bowl all of silver, and then besides
Word by word
The setting
The digression on the wine deepens. Odysseus explains why Maron rewarded him so richly — his men had spared the priest's whole household — and begins to list the gifts.
A note on this passage
Odysseus fills in the reason for the gift. Because his men had spared Maron along with his wife and child, out of reverence — for the priest lived in a grove sacred to Apollo — Maron loaded him with splendid presents: seven talents of wrought gold, a mixing-bowl of solid silver, and more to come.
The scene is guest-friendship and piety braided together. Sparing a god's priest is respect for θέμις, the settled law the Cyclops so pointedly lacks; the reverence (ἁζόμενοι) is owed less to the man than to the god behind him. And the catalogue is arranged to climb: gold and a silver bowl are named first precisely so the true prize — the wine — can arrive last and outrank them all.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.199 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 9.199 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.199/