Δειλαί τοι δειλῶν γε καὶ ἐγγύαι ἐγγυάασθαι.
Worthless is as worthless does.
Homer, The Odyssey, Book VIII (Martin Hammond, trans., 2000), line 351. This is variously translated. William Cullen Bryant (1871) has Vulcan say these words: “little is the worth of pledges given For worthless debtors.” Richmond Lattimore’s rendering (1965; 1991) is ungainly but follows the Greek closely: “The business of wretches is wretched even in guarantee giving.” Stanley Lombardo’s version (2000) is especially elegant: “Worthless is the surety assured for the worthless.” Robert Fitzgerald (1998), however, breezes by the poetry here: “I should not swear to a scoundrel’s honor.”
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Curious as to what the original Greek were, I checked … and found that Book VII ends with verse 347.
I infer a transcription error in the number of the book or of the verse.
It turns out the line numbers on translations are not to the original Greek in the standard edition, but to the translators’ own lines! I was unaware of this, hence the rabbit hole I went trying to find the passages in my favorite translators, Bryant and Lombardo. See above, edited to incorporate what I found.