Laudator Temporis Acti

Homer, Odyssey 15.343-345 (tr. Richmond Lattimore):

There is nothing worse for mortal men than the vagrant
life, but still for the sake of the cursed stomach people
endure hard sorrows, when roving and pain and grief befall them.

πλαγκτοσύνης δ᾽ οὐκ ἔστι κακώτερον ἄλλο βροτοῖσιν·
ἀλλ᾽ ἕνεκ᾽ οὐλομένης γαστρὸς κακὰ κήδε᾽ ἔχουσιν
ἀνέρες, ὅν τιν᾽ ἵκηται ἄλη καὶ πῆμα καὶ ἄλγος.        345

W.B. Stanford ad loc.:

343. 'There is nothing worse for mortal men than going astray.' Note O.'s attitude to his travels: he was no romantic adventurer indulging his Wanderlust, but a weary ex-soldier always yearning to reach home—yet, it must be added, with enough vitality and curiosity to take an interest in his enforced travels. But now, looking back on them, in this line he gives his melancholy considered judgement. With πλαγκτοσύνη cp. πλάγχθη in 1, 2: it implies unwilling deflection from one's chosen course.

344-5. ἀλλ᾽ κ.τ.λ.: 'But the fact is that men suffer cruelly to satisfy their accursed belly, involving themselves in wandering, sorrow, and woe '. ἀλλά here has its common eliminative force 'substituting the true for the false' (Denniston, G.P. p. 1) after a negative clause. οὐλομένη (2 aor. mid. part. of ὄλλυμι, used as an adj.) has the force of the English slang expression 'his perishing' so-and-so. Schulze explains it as a development from the imprecation ὄλοιο or ὄλοιτο 'may it perish', as ὀνήμενος from ὄναιο (ὀνίνημι).