Odyssey 9.70 · Book 9, lines 70–73
Sails torn 'in three and four'
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αἱ μὲν ἔπειτʼ ἐφέροντʼ ἐπικάρσιαι, ἱστία δέ σφιν τριχθά τε καὶ τετραχθὰ διέσχισεν ἲς ἀνέμοιο. καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐς νῆας κάθεμεν, δείσαντες ὄλεθρον, αὐτὰς δʼ ἐσσυμένως προερέσσαμεν ἤπειρόνδε.
They were then carried sideways, and their sails the force of the wind tore in three and four. And these we lowered into the ships, fearing destruction, and rowed them in haste toward the mainland.
Word by word
The setting
The squall hits the sails. Homeric ships carried a single square sail on a mast that could be unstepped; in a real blow the crew struck sail and took to the oars.
A note on this passage
Pure seamanship, told fast. The wind takes the ships broadside and rips the sails to rags — 'in three and in four,' the tearing itself counted out. The crew does the right thing: strike the torn sails, stow them below, and pull for the nearest land under oars before the ships founder.
Homer credits the disaster to ἲς ἀνέμοιο, 'the force of the wind' — as if the wind's sinew, its muscle, did the tearing. It is the same word used for a hero's bodily strength, and here the storm is given a body. The men's competence is real but small: against a wind with muscle, the best they can manage is not to drown.
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