Odyssey 9.224 · Book 9, lines 224–227
The men urge flight
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ἔνθʼ ἐμὲ μὲν πρώτισθʼ ἕταροι λίσσοντʼ ἐπέεσσιν τυρῶν αἰνυμένους ἰέναι πάλιν, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα καρπαλίμως ἐπὶ νῆα θοὴν ἐρίφους τε καὶ ἄρνας σηκῶν ἐξελάσαντας ἐπιπλεῖν ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ·
There first my comrades begged me with words to take of the cheeses and go back, but then swiftly to drive out the kids and lambs from the pens to the swift ship, and sail over the salt water.
Word by word
The setting
Seeing the wealth of the cave, Odysseus's men give him the prudent plan: grab some cheeses, drive off the young animals, and get to sea before the owner returns.
A note on this passage
The crew speak the sensible course, and the poem records it in full: take cheese, run the lambs and kids down to the ship, and sail. It is a raider's plan — quick theft and a quicker getaway — and it is exactly what would have saved them.
The undercurrent is that the men are right and their captain is about to be wrong. Homer marks the moment ('there first my comrades begged') so the disaster to come is not blind fate but a refused warning. The same restless curiosity that keeps Odysseus alive across the whole poem is here the flaw that dooms six of them; the crew's caution is the road not taken, laid down plainly just before he turns from it.
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