The Odyssey 21.386–396
Now there lay beneath the portico the cable of a curved ship, made of byblus plant, wherewith he made fast the gates, and then himself went within. Thereafter he came and sat down on the seat from which he had risen, and gazed upon Odysseus; now he was already handling the bow, turning it round and round, and trying it this way and that, lest worms might have eaten the horns, while its lord was afar. And thus would one speak with a glance at his neighbor:
“Verily he has a shrewd eye, and is a cunning knave with a bow. It may be haply that he has himself such bows stored away at home, or else he is minded to make one, that he thus
ὣς ἄρʼ ἐφώνησεν, τῇ δʼ ἄπτερος ἔπλετο μῦθος,
κλήϊσεν δὲ θύρας μεγάρων εὖ ναιεταόντων.
σιγῇ δʼ ἐξ οἴκοιο Φιλοίτιος ἆλτο θύραζε,
κλήϊσεν δʼ ἄρʼ ἔπειτα θύρας εὐερκέος αὐλῆς.
κεῖτο δʼ ὑπʼ αἰθούσῃ ὅπλον νεὸς ἀμφιελίσσης
βύβλινον, ᾧ ῥʼ ἐπέδησε θύρας, ἐς δʼ ἤϊεν αὐτός·
ἕζετʼ ἔπειτʼ ἐπὶ δίφρον ἰών, ἔνθεν περ ἀνέστη,
εἰσορόων Ὀδυσῆα. ὁ δʼ ἤδη τόξον ἐνώμα
πάντη ἀναστρωφῶν, πειρώμενος ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα,
μὴ κέρα ἶπες ἔδοιεν ἀποιχομένοιο ἄνακτος.
ὧδε τις εἴπεσκεν ἰδὼν ἐς πλησίον ἄλλον·