Odyssey 9.548 · Book 9, lines 548–549
An equal share for every man
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μῆλα δὲ Κύκλωπος γλαφυρῆς ἐκ νηὸς ἑλόντες δασσάμεθʼ, ὡς μή τίς μοι ἀτεμβόμενος κίοι ἴσης.
And taking the flocks of the Cyclops from the hollow ship, we shared them out, so that no one should go off cheated by me of a fair share.
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The setting
Safe back among the other ships, the crews come ashore. Now the plunder from the Cyclops's cave — his sheep and goats — must be divided among all the men.
A note on this passage
A short, practical scene: the flocks taken from the cave are carried off the ship and split among the crews. Odysseus dwells on the fairness — the division is made so that no man goes off cheated of his equal share.
The undercurrent is leadership shown in an account-book. After the horror of the cave, the first thing the captain does is measure out shares evenly. A war-band holds together on exactly this: plunder divided by rule, no one slighted. It is the mirror-opposite of the Cyclops, who owned everything and shared nothing.
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