Odyssey 9.37 · Book 9, lines 37–40
From Troy to the sack of Ismarus
Read the full text in our reader
εἰ δʼ ἄγε τοι καὶ νόστον ἐμὸν πολυκηδέʼ ἐνίσπω, ὅν μοι Ζεὺς ἐφέηκεν ἀπὸ Τροίηθεν ἰόντι. Ἰλιόθεν με φέρων ἄνεμος Κικόνεσσι πέλασσεν, Ἰσμάρῳ. ἔνθα δʼ ἐγὼ πόλιν ἔπραθον, ὤλεσα δʼ αὐτούς·
But come now, let me also tell you my own homecoming, full of woe, which Zeus laid upon me as I journeyed from Troy. From Ilium the wind, carrying me, drove me near to the Cicones, to Ismarus. There I sacked the city, and destroyed its men.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus begins the narrative of his wanderings — the tale that fills Books 9 to 12. The wind off Troy drives his ships first to Ismarus, city of the Cicones (a Thracian people who had fought as Troy's allies), which he storms.
A note on this passage
The story proper begins. With the old summons — come, let me tell — Odysseus starts the tale of his return, the homecoming heavy with grief that Zeus laid on him as he left Troy. The wind carries him straight to the Cicones at Ismarus, and he takes the town and kills its men.
The first act of the journey home is a sack. The hero of the nostos opens his road with the same work he did at Troy — a raid, a burned city, dead men. The poem reports it flatly, without apology, and lets the reader feel how thin the line is between the warrior of the Iliad and the wanderer trying to get home.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.37 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 9.37 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.37/