by Homer
Show me your city, lend me tatters to throw on,
maybe a cloth which wrapped your clothes when you came here.
Then may the Gods bestow whatever your heart wants—
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♦ a man and home—and grant you the closeness of two good
minds. For surely nothing is better or stronger
than man and woman close in thought and in holding
house. It often stings their rivals but brings joy
to well-wishers. The pair have heard that most often.”
Lavish Care on the Stranger
White-armed Nausikaa faced him now as she answered.
“Stranger, you don’t look like a harmful or foolish
man but Zeus himself on Olumpos apportions a good life
to evil and good men both, to each as he wants to.
He gave you your lot; you need, doubtless, to bear it.
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But now, having arrived in our country and city,
you won’t lack clothes or anything else that is proper
for those who face us humbly, whatever their trials.
I’ll show you the city. I’ll tell you the name of our people:
Phaiakians hold this land and rule in the city.
I’m Alkinoos’s daughter—a man with a great heart—
Phaiakian strength and power are held by that ruler.”
She stopped and called to her maids, beautifully braided:
“Stay there, you maids! You look at a man and you dash off?
Surely you don’t suppose an enemy stands here.
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No man’s all that clever—no one will ever
try and approach Phaiakian men on our own soil
bent on slaughter: we’re much too loved by the great Gods.
Our homes are across so many swells of the ocean,
so far apart that other humans hardly engage us.
Now a wandering, wretched man has arrived here.
He needs to be cared for: every stranger and beggar
comes from Zeus; our gift may be small but it’s friendly.
So help him, you maids—food and drink for the stranger!
Wash the man in a wind-sheltered place at the river.”
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Bathing Alone
After she spoke they stopped and called to each other.
They took Odysseus to shelter—so they were told to
there by Nausikaa, great-hearted Alkinoos’s daughter.
They set out clothes beside him, a mantle and tunic;
they gave him softening olive oil in a golden
flask and told him to wash in the flow of the river.
A Man Like a God Again
Among the handmaids, godlike Odysseus answered,
“Stand off a ways, you women. Allow me to wash off
brine from my shoulders myself and rub them with olive
oil—my skin has not been oiled for a long time.
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But I won’t bathe with you close by. I’m embarrassed
to do so bare among maids beautifully braided.”
Silver on Gold
He stopped and they moved away to talk with the princess.
Godlike Odysseus washed himself in the river,
removing the brine that covered all his shoulders
and back, wiping the restless sea’s foam from his forehead.
Soon as he washed it all and anointed his body
he put on clothes the unmarried virgin had offered.
The daughter of Zeus, Athene made him taller
and stronger to look at too, dressing his thick hair
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to hang in curls from his head like hyacinth blossoms.
The way a man might skillfully overlay silver
on gold, trained by Hephaistos and Pallas Athene
in every art to turn out work outstandingly graceful,
Athene graced Odysseus’s head and shoulders the same way.
To Be Called My Husband
He went and sat apart by the shore of the salt sea,
handsome, graceful and glowing. Nausikaa marveled,
speaking among her maids who were beautifully braided:
“Listen, you white-armed maids, for now I will speak out.
This man will mingle with godlike Phaiakians hardly
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against the will of all the Gods holding Olumpos.
A while ago he struck me as coarse and unsightly;
now he looks like a God who rules in the broad sky.
If only a man like that could be called my husband,
if only he’d settle here and be happy to stay here!
Come on then, you maids: food and drink for the stranger.”
Off to the City
She spoke that way, they heard her well and obeyed her.
They set out food and wine close to Odysseus.
That long-suffering, godlike Odysseus heartily ate there
and drank. He’d gone without the taste of food for a long time.
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Then white-armed Nausikaa thought of a new plan.
The clothes all folded and placed in the well-designed wagon,
the tough-hoofed mules well yoked, she mounted herself then,
heartened Odysseus, called and spoke to him outright:
“Get up now, stranger, we’re off to the city. I’ll send you
straight to my knowing Father’s house where the best men
all gather, I’m sure: you’ll come to know the Phaiakians.
But do it my way—you don’t strike me as unwise—
so long as we go past fields and farmers at work there,
march with my handmaids briskly. Follow the wagon
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and mules as I show you the way myself to the city.
Once we’re close to the place, look at the high wall
around it first, the lovely harbor on both sides,
the tight channel for up-curved ships on their way in.
They’re hauled up high and every ship has its own place.
We assemble around a beautiful shrine to Poseidon,
built with stones hauled from deep in the quarry.
We take good care of our black ships and their tackle,
hawsers and sails—some men taper the oar-blades.
Phaiakians don’t care much about quivers and long bows.
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Mainmasts, balanced ships and oars on the vessels—
those are their joys, and getting borne on the gray sea.
Gossip and Ill Will
♦ “Their talk is disgraceful, though. I avoid it and no one
chides me later. Very overbearing men in this country,
the viler sort, might now remark if they met us,
‘Who’s this hulking, good-looking stranger who follows
Nausikaa? Where did she find him? For sure it’s a husband!
Maybe she picked up a roamer tossed from a vessel
of men far off, since no such people are nearby.
Or else a God came down from heaven to answer
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her many prayers—and all her days she will own him!
She’s better off to travel and find a husband
elsewhere the way she scorns men in our own land—
many a good Phaiakian man’s wooing that lady.’
They’ll talk that way about all this work to disgrace me.
I’d blame a woman myself who acted the same way,
at odds with her living and much-loved father and mother,
mixing with men before her marriage is well known.
The Poplar Grove
“Ah but stranger, mark my word for the fastest
way to reach my home and to gain from my Father.
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You’ll find a roadside poplar grove of Athene,
bright and flowing with spring-water: meadow surrounds it.
My Father’s land is th
ere, teeming with orchards
and far from the city as loud shouting will carry.
Sit there. Wait for a while until we have entered
the city ourselves and arrived at the house of my Father.
Go to the Mother
“Then as soon as you hope we’ve gone in the palace,
enter the city yourself and ask a Phaiakian
where Alkinoos’s house is, my great-hearted father.
You’ll know it with ease, a foolish child could take you
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there because no other Phaiakian houses
rise in the same way as the house of our war-king,
Alkinoos. After our home and courtyard surround you
go through the hall in a hurry until you have come to
♦ my Mother. She sits in the bright glow of the hearth-fire
spinning her sea-blue yarn—it’s striking to look at.
She leans on a column with maids seated behind her.
The throne my Father sits on also is leaning:
he drinks his wine like a deathless God in the same place.
But go right past him. Take the knees of my Mother
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with both your hands, the sooner to gaze on your homeward
daylight with joy, however far you have sailed from.
If Mother’s thoughts are friendly, her heart in your favor,
then you may hope to sail and look on your loved ones
back in your well-built home in the land of your fathers.”
On to the City
After she’d spoken she lashed the mules with her bright whip.
Promptly they left the flow of the river behind them,
the animals moving along, their hooves at a quick trot.
She managed the reins to allow her maids and Odysseus
to follow on foot. She used the lash with a close care.
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Listen, Goddess
The sun went down as they came to the holy and well-known
grove of Athene. Godlike Odysseus sat there.
He prayed fast to Athene, the daughter of great Zeus:
“Hear me, unfailing daughter of Zeus who carries the Aigis.
Listen this time! You failed to listen before this
when I was struck—when the well-known Earth-Shaker struck me.
Make me arrive among the Phaiakians pitied and well-liked.”
He prayed that way and was heard by Pallas Athene.
But awed by her Father’s brother, she held off from facing
the man—not yet. Poseidon was bitterly angry
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at godlike Odysseus until he came to his own land.
BOOK 7 The Warmest Welcome
An Old Woman from Apeire
So long-suffering, godlike Odysseus prayed there.
Meanwhile hearty mules carried the girl to the city.
Soon as she came to the well-known house of her father
she made a stop at the gates. Her brothers approached her,
like deathless Gods around her, letting the mules out
from under the yoke and carrying clothes in the palace.
She went to the bedroom herself. Starting a fire there
was Eurumedousa, her elderly maid from Apeire.
Up-curved ships had brought her once from Apeire,
a prize to honor Alkinoos, ruler of every
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Phaiakian clan, obeyed like a God by his people.
She’d raised white-armed Nausikaa there in the great hall.
Now she built a fire and arranged for her dinner.
Young Girl with a Pitcher
Odysseus meanwhile rose to enter the city.
Thoughtful and caring, Athene misted him densely
to stop the ample-hearted Phaiakians from halting
or baiting Odysseus, asking his name or homeland.
Shortly about to enter the beautiful city,
he faced the Goddess herself, glow-eyed Athene.
She’d taken the form of a young girl bearing a pitcher.
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She stopped before him. Godlike Odysseus asked her,
“My girl, could you take me now to the house of your ruler,
the man they call Alkinoos, lord of the people?
I’m hard-tested myself. I came as a stranger
from far-off land so I don’t know of your people,
the men who own this land and rule in the city.”
Vessels Fast as an Insight
An answer came from the Goddess, gray-eyed Athene:
“Well then, fatherly stranger, I’ll show you the building
you look for. It stands quite close to my handsome Father’s.
But follow me quietly now. I’ll take you myself there.
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Don’t be staring at men or asking them questions.
People don’t take well to those who are odd here:
they’re not fast friends with strangers coming from elsewhere.
They tend to rely on their swift and maneuvering vessels
for crossing the wide sea where the Earth-Shaker Poseidon
lets them go. Their ships are fast as a bird or an insight.”