Odyssey 9.378 · Book 9, lines 378–381
A god breathes courage
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ τάχʼ ὁ μοχλὸς ἐλάινος ἐν πυρὶ μέλλεν ἅψεσθαι, χλωρός περ ἐών διεφαίνετο δʼ αἰνῶς, καὶ τότʼ ἐγὼν ἆσσον φέρον ἐκ πυρός, ἀμφὶ δʼ ἑταῖροι ἵσταντʼ· αὐτὰρ θάρσος ἐνέπνευσεν μέγα δαίμων.
But when soon the olive stake in the fire was about to catch, green though it was, and glowed terribly, then I brought it nearer from the fire, and around me my comrades stood; but a god breathed in great courage.
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The setting
The stake has been heating in the embers. Odysseus waits for the exact moment when the green wood is ready, then lifts it out for the blow.
A note on this passage
The timing is exact. Green olive-wood should not burn, yet under the ash the stake begins to glow, fearsomely alive with heat. Odysseus lifts it from the fire, his men close in around him, and courage floods them at the last moment.
The undercurrent is the god in the room. Homer credits the sudden surge of nerve to a daímōn, an unnamed divine power — probably the Athena who steers Odysseus everywhere. Even here, in the most self-made of his exploits, the poem insists a god breathes at his shoulder; the cunning is his, but the courage is given.
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