Odyssey 9.216 · Book 9, lines 216–218
The empty cave
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καρπαλίμως δʼ εἰς ἄντρον ἀφικόμεθʼ, οὐδέ μιν ἔνδον εὕρομεν, ἀλλʼ ἐνόμευε νομὸν κάτα πίονα μῆλα ἐλθόντες δʼ εἰς ἄντρον ἐθηεύμεσθα ἕκαστα.
Swiftly we came into the cave, but we did not find him within; he was pasturing his fat flocks over the pasture. Entering the cave, we gazed at each thing.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus and twelve chosen men reach the Cyclops's cave. The giant is out at pasture, so they step inside the unguarded dwelling and look it over.
A note on this passage
A short bridge that gets the men inside. They come fast, find the owner gone, and enter to inspect the cave at leisure. The verb for their looking — ἐθηεύμεσθα — is the word for gazing at a spectacle, wonder rather than caution.
The undercurrent is the missed exit. The cave stands open, the master absent; this is the one moment they could take what they want and go, and the poem quietly marks it by having them stop to marvel instead. Their curiosity, the very trait that makes Odysseus who he is, is already keeping them exactly where they should not stay.
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