Odyssey 9.464 · Book 9, lines 464–467
Reunion at the ship
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καρπαλίμως δὲ τὰ μῆλα ταναύποδα, πίονα δημῷ, πολλὰ περιτροπέοντες ἐλαύνομεν, ὄφρʼ ἐπὶ νῆα ἱκόμεθʼ. ἀσπάσιοι δὲ φίλοις ἑτάροισι φάνημεν, οἳ φύγομεν θάνατον, τοὺς δὲ στενάχοντο γοῶντες.
Swiftly we drove the long-shanked flocks, rich with fat, wheeling them round, until we came to the ship. A welcome sight we appeared to our dear companions — we who had escaped death; but the others they mourned, wailing.
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The setting
Odysseus and the freed survivors drive the Cyclops's fat flocks down to the waiting ship, where the crew who stayed behind greet them with joy — and with grief for the men who did not come back.
A note on this passage
They herd the stolen sheep down to the ship and are met with relief. The comrades left with the vessel rejoice to see them come back alive.
The passage turns on a hinge: welcome for the living, weeping for the dead, in the same breath. Homer will not let the clever escape be simply a triumph. Men were eaten in that cave; the survivors are a smaller company than the one that landed, and the reunion is half a funeral.
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