Odyssey 9.56 · Book 9, lines 56–60
The line breaks at the ox-loosing hour
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ὄφρα μὲν ἠὼς ἦν καὶ ἀέξετο ἱερὸν ἦμαρ, τόφρα δʼ ἀλεξόμενοι μένομεν πλέονάς περ ἐόντας. ἦμος δʼ ἠέλιος μετενίσσετο βουλυτόνδε, καὶ τότε δὴ Κίκονες κλῖναν δαμάσαντες Ἀχαιούς. ἓξ δʼ ἀφʼ ἑκάστης νηὸς ἐυκνήμιδες ἑταῖροι
As long as the dawn lasted and the sacred day was waxing, so long we held our ground, defending ourselves, though they were the more. But when the sun crossed over to the ox-loosing hour, then at last the Cicones routed the Achaeans, overpowering them. And from each ship six well-greaved companions—
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The setting
The battle at the ships lasts all day. Through the morning Odysseus's outnumbered men hold; at evening the Cicones prevail. Homer begins the count of the dead — six from each ship — the reckoning that runs on into the next lines.
A note on this passage
The day-long fight turns at evening. As long as morning held and the sacred day was still growing, Odysseus's men stood their ground against superior numbers; but when the sun began to sink toward evening, the Cicones broke them. Six from every ship are lost.
Homer marks the hour with the countryman's word — the time when oxen are unyoked from the plough. A battlefield is measured by the rhythm of home and harvest, the world these men are trying to return to. And here the tally of the dead begins: the count, ship by ship, that the whole homecoming is really about. The sentence is left open, the loss spilling over into the next lines.
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