Odyssey 9.5 · Book 9, lines 5–8
There is nothing finer than a feast in good cheer
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οὐ γὰρ ἐγώ γέ τί φημι τέλος χαριέστερον εἶναι ἢ ὅτʼ ἐυφροσύνη μὲν ἔχῃ κάτα δῆμον ἅπαντα, δαιτυμόνες δʼ ἀνὰ δώματʼ ἀκουάζωνται ἀοιδοῦ ἥμενοι ἑξείης, παρὰ δὲ πλήθωσι τράπεζαι
For I do not say at all that any fulfilment is more graceful than when good cheer holds throughout all the people, and banqueters through the halls listen to a singer, sitting in rows, and beside them the tables stand laden
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The setting
Odysseus goes on with his reply to Alcinous, giving his own picture of the best thing life offers — the well-ordered feast, with a singer, that he has just been enjoying as a guest.
A note on this passage
Odysseus paints his idea of the finest thing in life: a whole people in good cheer, banqueters seated in order through the halls, a singer among them, and the tables heavy with food. It is a vision of a community at peace with itself.
The picture is doing quiet work. This ordered, generous feast is the measure against which everything to come will be judged — the suitors devouring his house without order, and above all the Cyclops, who keeps no tables, seats no guests, and eats men instead of feeding them. He describes civilization just before he narrates its opposite.
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