Odyssey 9.204 · Book 9, lines 204–207
The secret wine
Read the full text in our reader
οἶνον ἐν ἀμφιφορεῦσι δυώδεκα πᾶσιν ἀφύσσας ἡδὺν ἀκηράσιον, θεῖον ποτόν· οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν ἠείδη δμώων οὐδʼ ἀμφιπόλων ἐνὶ οἴκῳ, ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς ἄλοχός τε φίλη ταμίη τε μίʼ οἴη.
drawing off wine into twelve jars in all, sweet, unmixed, a drink for gods; and not one of the slaves knew of it nor of the handmaids in the house, but only himself, his dear wife, and one housekeeper all alone.
Word by word
The setting
The greatest of Maron's gifts: a wine so precious and potent that only three people in his whole house even knew it was there.
A note on this passage
Maron had drawn off twelve jars of this wine — sweet, unmixed, a drink fit for gods. And Homer measures its worth by its secrecy: not one slave or serving-woman in the house knew of it; only Maron himself, his wife, and a single trusted housekeeper.
The secrecy does double work. It marks the wine as almost sacred, a θεῖον ποτόν kept hidden the way holy things are kept, apart from the household. And it quietly loads the weapon: the poet is telling us just how overwhelming this drink is before we see it used, so that when the Cyclops swallows it neat, undiluted and unwarned, we already know he cannot withstand it.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.204 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 9.204 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.204/