Odyssey 9.9 · Book 9, lines 9–11
The wine carried round — the finest thing of all
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σίτου καὶ κρειῶν, μέθυ δʼ ἐκ κρητῆρος ἀφύσσων οἰνοχόος φορέῃσι καὶ ἐγχείῃ δεπάεσσι· τοῦτό τί μοι κάλλιστον ἐνὶ φρεσὶν εἴδεται εἶναι.
with bread and meats, and the wine-pourer, drawing wine from the mixing-bowl, carries it round and pours it into the cups: this seems to me in my heart to be the finest thing.
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The setting
Odysseus completes his description of the ideal feast, closing on the wine poured for the guests. This image of shared drink caps his praise of hospitality before he turns to his own sorrows.
A note on this passage
The feast-picture finishes with the wine: the steward drawing it from the great bowl and carrying it round to fill the cups. This, Odysseus says, seems to him in his heart the finest thing of all.
Wine is the sign of the shared table here — measured, poured for others, the center of hospitality. The word is worth marking, because wine returns as a weapon: the drink that gladdens a well-ordered hall is the same Odysseus will use, unmixed and overpowering, to blind the Cyclops. The emblem of civilized giving becomes the tool of survival.
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Odyssey 9.9 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.9/