Odyssey 2, 42-46

Greek Homeric Greek and Early Greek Poetry
1

οὔτε τινʼ ἀγγελίην στρατοῦ ἔκλυον ἐρχομένοιο,
ἥν χʼ ὑμῖν σάφα εἴπω, ὅτε πρότερός γε πυθοίμην,
οὔτε τι δήμιον ἄλλο πιφαύσκομαι οὐδʼ ἀγορεύω,
ἀλλʼ ἐμὸν αὐτοῦ χρεῖος, ὅ μοι κακὰ ἔμπεσεν οἴκῳ
δοιά·

Telemachus is making his maiden speech in the assembly. What struck me was ‘ἀλλʼ ἐμὸν αὐτοῦ χρεῖος’. αὑτοῦ surely refers to Telemachus, so we have something like: No, my own need etctera. But isn’t it unusual for αὑτός to refer to the 1st person singular in this way?

2

Note that it’s αὐτός, not αὑτός (=ὁ αὐτός), which I think doesn’t occur in Homer. Nothing troubles me here, but perhaps you’re experiencing interference from later Greek; I don’t know if this would be ok in later Greek or if you should always use something like τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ χρεῖος, or more emphatically τὸ χρεῖος τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ.

3

Thanks!
It doesn’t seem so strange on a second reading.