Odyssey 9.267 · Book 9, lines 267–270
Suppliants, and Zeus behind them
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Odysseus — ἱκόμεθʼ, εἴ τι πόροις ξεινήιον ἠὲ καὶ ἄλλως δοίης δωτίνην, ἥ τε ξείνων θέμις ἐστίν. ἀλλʼ αἰδεῖο, φέριστε, θεούς· ἱκέται δέ τοί εἰμεν, Ζεὺς δʼ ἐπιτιμήτωρ ἱκετάων τε ξείνων τε,
have come, if you would grant a guest-gift, or even otherwise give a gift, which is the right of guests. But revere the gods, mightiest one; we are suppliants to you, and Zeus is the avenger both of suppliants and of strangers,
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus closes with the formal appeal: grant the guest-gift that is a stranger's due, respect the gods, for Zeus himself avenges suppliants and guests.
A note on this passage
The plea is textbook and correct. He asks for the ξεινήιον, the guest-gift owed any comer, names it as θέμις, the settled right of guests, and warns the giant to revere the gods — for they are suppliants, and Zeus is the protector who punishes wrongs done to guest and suppliant alike.
The undercurrent is the mismatch of worlds. Every term Odysseus reaches for — guest-gift, what-is-right, the avenging Zeus — belongs to the human order of hospitality. He invokes a contract the Cyclops never signed. The appeal to Zeus is exactly right and exactly useless, and the reader, who knows what is coming, hears the law spoken aloud in the moment before it is trampled.
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