Victory shifts from man to man.

The line expresses a central Homeric idea: success in war is unstable and contingent. In the world of the epics, prowess matters, but outcomes are never permanently secured—battle turns on chance, fatigue, morale, and, above all, the shifting will of the gods. Read this way, “victory” is not a possession earned once and for all; it is a force that moves, temporarily attaching itself to one fighter or army and then passing to another. The sentiment underscores the precariousness of human glory (kleos) and the need for courage and endurance precisely because triumph is reversible.