Odyssey 9.461 · Book 9, lines 461–463
Out of the cave
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ὣς εἰπὼν τὸν κριὸν ἀπὸ ἕο πέμπε θύραζε. ἐλθόντες δʼ ἠβαιὸν ἀπὸ σπείους τε καὶ αὐλῆς πρῶτος ὑπʼ ἀρνειοῦ λυόμην, ὑπέλυσα δʼ ἑταίρους.
So saying, he sent the ram from him out the door. When we had gone a little way from the cave and the yard, first I loosed myself from under the ram, and I freed my companions.
Word by word
The setting
His speech to the ram finished, the giant lets it pass through the doorway. Once clear of the cave and the walled yard, Odysseus drops from beneath the ram and unties his men from under their own rams.
A note on this passage
Pure release of held tension, told fast. The door-stone is off, the ram walks out, and the moment it is past the yard Odysseus lets go and frees the others.
Notice the order Homer keeps: first I loosed myself, then freed my companions. The captain is out before his crew — and in the lines just ahead he will drive them harder than they want to be driven. The escape is a leader's, exact and a little cold, and the poem records the sequence plainly, without comment.
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