Book 6

So the much-enduring noble Odysseus slept there,overcome by sleep and toil; but Athenawent to the people and the city of the Phaeacian men,who once long ago dwelt in broad Hypereia,near the Cyclopes, men of overweening pride,who kept harrying them, and were stronger in might than they.From there godlike Nausithous led them and settled themin Scheria, far from men who toil for bread,and he drove a wall about the city, and built houses,and made temples of the gods, and divided out the fields.But he had already gone down to Hades, subdued by death,and then Alcinous ruled, knowing counsel from the gods.To his house went the goddess, grey-eyed Athena,planning the return of great-hearted Odysseus.She went to the richly-wrought chamber, wherein a maidenslept, like the immortal goddesses in stature and in form,Nausicaa, daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,and beside her two handmaids, having beauty from the Graces,on either side of the doorposts; and the shining doors were shut.Like a breath of wind she rushed to the maiden's bed,and stood above her head, and spoke a word to her,appearing as the daughter of Dymas, famed for his ships,who was of her own age, and was dear to her heart.Resembling her, grey-eyed Athena spoke to her:Nausicaa, why did your mother bear you so careless of all this?Your garments lie neglected, all of them shining; andyour marriage is near at hand, when you must dress yourselfin lovely things, and give others to those who lead you.For from such things good report goes up among men,and father and honored mother both rejoice.But let us go to wash at the appearing Dawn;and I will follow with you as a fellow-worker, so that most quicklyyou may be ready, since you shall be a maiden no longer;for already the noblest men throughout the districtof all the Phaeacians woo you, where your own lineage is.But come, urge your glorious father at early dawnto make ready the mules and the wagon, which may carryyour girdles and robes and shining coverlets.And for you yourself it is far better than goingon foot; for the washing places are far from the city.So saying, grey-eyed Athena departedto Olympus, where they say the gods' seat is foreversecure. It is not shaken by any winds, nor everwet with rain, nor does snow come near it, but a clear skyis spread out unclouded, and a white radiance runs over it;in it the blessed gods take delight all their days.There grey-eyed Athena went, when she had told the maiden all.Straightway came Dawn of the lovely throne, who wokefair-robed Nausicaa; and at once she marveled at the dream,and she went through the house, to tell her parents,her dear father and her mother; and she found them within.Her mother sat at the hearth with her women handmaids,spinning sea-purple wool; and her father she metas he went out among the glorious kings,to the council, where the proud Phaeacians called him.Standing very near, she spoke to her dear father:Dear papa, would you not make ready for me a wagonhigh and well-wheeled, so that I may carry the glorious garmentsto the river to wash, which lie soiled for me?And it is fitting for you too, sitting among the foremost,to plan counsels wearing clean garments on your body.For five dear sons have been born to you in the halls,two of them married, and three flourishing young men;and these always wish, having newly-washed garments,to go to the dance; and all this is a care to my heart.So she spoke; for she was ashamed to name her blooming marriageto her dear father. But he understood all and answered with a word:I do not begrudge you the mules, child, nor anything else.Go on; and the servants shall make ready the wagon,high and well-wheeled, fitted above with a frame.So saying he called to the servants, and they obeyed.They outside drew out the well-wheeled mule-wagonand brought up the mules and yoked them beneath the wagon;and the girl brought shining clothing from the chamber.And she laid it down on the well-polished wagon,and her mother put in a basket satisfying foodof every kind, and put in relishes, and poured in winein a goatskin; and the girl climbed onto the wagon.And she gave in a golden flask liquid olive oil,so that she might anoint herself with her women handmaids.And she took the whip and the shining reins,and lashed to drive; and there was a clatter of the two mules.They strained unceasingly, and carried the clothing and her,not her alone, for with her the other handmaids went as well.When they came to the beautiful stream of the river,where the washing places were unfailing, and abundant waterflowed out, very good for cleansing even soiled things,there they released the mules from the wagon.And they drove them along the eddying riverto graze on honey-sweet grass; and they from the wagontook the clothing in their hands and carried it into the dark water,and trod them in the trenches swiftly, striving in rivalry.But when they had washed and cleansed away all the dirt,they spread them in order along the shore of the sea, where mostthe sea washed up pebbles toward the dry land.And they, having bathed and anointed themselves richly with oil,then took their meal beside the banks of the river,and the garments waited for the sun's rays to dry them.But when the maids and she herself had had their fill of food,they played at ball, having thrown off their headdresses;and white-armed Nausicaa began the song for them.As the arrow-pouring Artemis goes down the mountains,either along tall Taygetus or Erymanthus,taking delight in boars and swift deer;and with her the nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus,the field-dwelling ones, play, and Leto rejoices in heart;and above all of them she holds her head and brow,and easily is she known, and all of them are beautiful;so the unwedded maiden stood out among her handmaids.But when she was about to return home again,having yoked the mules and folded the beautiful garments,then again the goddess, grey-eyed Athena, thought of another thing:that Odysseus might wake, and see the fair-faced maiden,who might guide him to the city of the Phaeacian men.Then the princess threw the ball at a handmaid;she missed the handmaid, and threw it into a deep eddy;and they cried out greatly; and noble Odysseus woke,and sitting up he pondered in his mind and heart:Alas for me! To the land of what mortals have I come now?Are they violent and savage and not just,or hospitable, and is their mind god-fearing?As of maidens a female cry came around me,of nymphs, who hold the steep peaks of the mountainsand the springs of rivers and the grassy meadows.Or am I somewhere near men of human speech?But come, I will myself make trial and see.So saying, noble Odysseus crept out from under the bushes,and from the thick wood broke a leafy branch with his stout hand,full of leaves, to cover the man's private parts about his body.He went like a mountain-bred lion trusting in his might,who goes on wet and windblown, and in him his two eyesburn; but he goes after cattle or sheepor wild deer; and his belly bids himto try for the flocks and come into the close-built fold;so Odysseus was about to mix with the fair-tressed girls,though naked; for need had come upon him.He appeared dreadful to them, marred by the brine,and they fled this way and that to the jutting shores;but the daughter of Alcinous alone stood fast; for Athenaput courage in her heart and took fear from her limbs.She stood facing him and held her ground; and Odysseus pondered,whether he should clasp her knees and beg the fair-faced maiden,or beg her from afar with gentle words,that she might show him the city and give him clothing.Thus to him thinking, it seemed the better thingto beg with gentle words from afar,lest, if he clasped her knees, the maiden be angered in heart.Straightway he spoke a gentle and winning word:I beseech you, lady: are you some god, or a mortal?If you are some god, one of those who hold the wide heaven,then to Artemis, daughter of great Zeus, Iliken you most nearly in form and stature and build.But if you are one of mortals, who dwell upon the earth,thrice blessed are your father and your honored mother,thrice blessed are your brothers; surely their heartis ever warmed with gladness because of you,as they look on such a young shoot entering the dance.But he is beyond others most blessed in heart,who, weighing you down with bride-gifts, leads you home.For never yet have I seen with my eyes such a mortal,neither man nor woman; awe takes me as I look.On Delos once, such a thing beside the altar of Apollo,a young shoot of a palm growing up, I noticed;for I went there too, and much people followed with me,on the journey on which evils were to befall me.And just so, seeing that, I marveled in my heartfor a long while, since never yet had such a tree come up from the earth,as you, lady, I wonder at and marvel at, and I dread greatlyto touch your knees; but a harsh grief comes upon me.Yesterday, on the twentieth day, I escaped the wine-dark sea;meanwhile the wave and the swift storms kept bearing mefrom the island of Ogygia. Now a god has cast me here,that I may perhaps suffer evil even here too; for I do not thinkit will cease, but the gods will yet accomplish many things first.But, lady, have pity; for after suffering many evilsI have come to you first, and of the others I know no oneof the men who hold this city and this land.Show me the town, and give me a rag to wrap myself,if perhaps you had some wrapping of cloths when you came here.May the gods give you as much as you desire in your heart:a husband and a house, and may they grant you goodlike-mindedness; for there is nothing better or noblerthan when a man and wife hold a houseof one mind in their thoughts; great grief to their enemies,but joy to their well-wishers, and most of all they themselves hear of it.And white-armed Nausicaa answered him in turn:Stranger, since you seem neither a base man nor a foolish one,Zeus himself, the Olympian, dispenses wealth to men,to the good and the bad, to each as he wishes;and perhaps he has given this to you, and you must endure it nevertheless.But now, since you have come to our city and land,you shall lack neither clothing nor anything elsethat is fitting for a stricken suppliant who meets one.I will show you the town, and I will tell you the name of the people.The Phaeacians hold this city and this land,and I am the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,and from him come the strength and power of the Phaeacians.She spoke, and called to her fair-tressed handmaids:Stand by me, handmaids; where do you flee, having seen a man?Surely you do not think him some hostile man?There is no such living mortal man, nor shall there be,who will come to the land of the Phaeacian menbringing war; for they are very dear to the immortals.We dwell apart in the much-surging sea,at the farthest edge, and no other mortal mixes with us.But this is some wretched wanderer who has come here,whom we must now care for; for all are from Zeus,both strangers and beggars, and the gift is small yet dear.But give, handmaids, to the stranger food and drink,and bathe him in the river, where there is shelter from the wind.So she spoke, and they stood and called to one another,and they seated Odysseus in the shelter, as Nausicaathe daughter of great-hearted Alcinous had commanded;and beside him they laid a cloak and tunic, clothing,and gave in a golden flask liquid olive oil,and urged him to bathe in the streams of the river.Then noble Odysseus spoke to the handmaids:Handmaids, stand thus away from me, so that I myselfmay wash the brine from my shoulders, and about me with oilanoint myself; for long has the anointing been from my skin.And I will not bathe in front of you; for I am ashamedto strip naked among fair-tressed girls.So he spoke, and they went away, and told the girl.But noble Odysseus washed from his body in the riverthe brine, which covered his back and broad shoulders,and from his head he wiped the scurf of the barren sea.But when he had bathed all and anointed richly with oil,and put on the clothing which the unwedded maiden gave him,then Athena, born of Zeus, made himgreater to look on and broader, and down from his headshe sent curling hair, like a hyacinth flower.As when a man pours gold over silver,a skilled man, whom Hephaestus taught and Pallas Athenaevery kind of craft, and he makes graceful works,so she poured grace over his head and shoulders.Then he went and sat apart on the shore of the sea,shining with beauty and graces; and the maiden looked at him.Then she spoke to her fair-tressed handmaids:Hear me, white-armed handmaids, so that I may say something.Not against the will of all the gods, who hold Olympus,does this man mix with the godlike Phaeacians;for before he seemed to me unseemly,but now he is like the gods, who hold the wide heaven.If only such a man might be called my husband,dwelling here, and it might please him to remain here.But give, handmaids, to the stranger food and drink.So she spoke, and they heard and obeyed her well,and set beside Odysseus food and drink.And much-enduring noble Odysseus drank and ategreedily; for long had he been without food.But white-armed Nausicaa thought of other things:she folded the clothing and laid it on the beautiful wagon,and yoked the strong-hoofed mules, and climbed up herself,and roused Odysseus, and spoke a word and addressed him:Rise now, stranger, and go to the city, so that I may send youto the house of my father, the wise-hearted, where I say youwill know all the Phaeacians, as many as are the best.But do just as I say, and you seem to me not to lack sense.As long as we go through the fields and the works of men,for so long with the handmaids, behind the mules and the wagon,walk quickly; and I will lead the way.But when we come upon the city, around which is a wallhigh, and a beautiful harbor on either side of the city,and a narrow entrance; and the curved shipsare drawn up along the road; for each has its own mooring place.And there is their assembly around a beautiful place of Poseidon,fitted with drawn stone buried in the ground.And there they busy themselves with the gear of the black ships,cables and ropes, and they sharpen their oars.For the Phaeacians care not for bow nor quiver,but for masts and oars of ships and the trim ships,in which, exulting, they cross the grey sea.I shun their ungentle talk, lest someone afterwardfind fault with me; for they are very arrogant in the district.And some worse man might meet me and say this:Who is this that follows Nausicaa, handsome and tall,a stranger? Where did she find him? He shall be her husband.Either she took in some wanderer from his ship,from men far away, since none are near;or some god came, greatly prayed for, to her as she prayed,coming down from heaven, and he shall have her all her days.Better that she herself had gone and found a husbandfrom elsewhere; for surely she dishonors thesePhaeacians, who woo her, many and noble.So they will say, and these would be reproaches to me.And I myself blame any other woman, whoever does such things,who, against the will of her dear father and mother living,mixes with men, before a public marriage comes.Stranger, you then understand my word quickly, so that most quicklyyou may win escort and return from my father.You will find a glorious grove of Athena near the road,of poplars; and a spring flows in it, and around it a meadow;and there is my father's precinct and a flourishing orchard,as far from the town as a man can shout.Sit there and wait for a time, until wecome to the town and reach my father's house.But when you suppose we have come to the house,then go to the city of the Phaeacians and askfor the house of my father, great-hearted Alcinous.It is easy to recognize, and even a foolish child could lead youto it; for not at all like the otherPhaeacian houses is the house of Alcinousthe hero made. But when the house and the courtyard cover you,go very quickly through the hall, until you cometo my mother; and she sits at the hearth in the light of the fire,spinning sea-purple wool, a wonder to look on,leaning against a pillar; and her maids sit behind her.And there my father's throne is set close to hers,on which he sits and drinks wine, like an immortal.Passing by him, throw your hands about my mother's knees,so that you may see your day of return,rejoicing and swiftly, even if you are very far away.If she holds kind thoughts for you in her heart,then there is hope for you to see your friends and cometo your well-built house and your own native land.So saying, she lashed the mules with the shining whip;and they quickly left the streams of the river.They trotted well, and turned their feet well;and she drove very skillfully, so that on foot might followthe handmaids and Odysseus, and with her mind she applied the whip.And the sun set, and they came to the glorious grovesacred to Athena, where noble Odysseus sat down.Straightway then he prayed to the daughter of great Zeus:Hear me, child of aegis-bearing Zeus, Unwearied One;now indeed hear me, since never before did you hear mewhen I was being dashed, when the glorious Earth-shaker dashed me.Grant that I come to the Phaeacians as one dear and pitied.So he spoke praying, and Pallas Athena heard him.But she did not yet appear to him face to face; for she fearedher father's brother; and he raged fiercelyagainst godlike Odysseus before he reached his own land.

So the much-enduring noble Odysseus slept there,worn out by sleep and toil; but Athenawent to the city and the district of the Phaeacian men,who once long ago lived in broad Hypereia,close to the Cyclopes, arrogant men,who kept harming them, and were stronger than they were in force.Godlike Nausithous led them away from there and settled themin Scheria, far from men who work for their bread,and he built a wall around the city, and built houses,and made temples for the gods, and divided up the farmland.But he had already gone down to Hades, overcome by death,and Alcinous ruled then, knowing counsel from the gods.The goddess, grey-eyed Athena, went to his house,planning a return home for great-hearted Odysseus.She went into the richly decorated bedroom, in which a young girlwas sleeping, like the immortal goddesses in body and in form,Nausicaa, the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,and beside her were two maids, who had their beauty from the Graces,one on each side of the doorposts; and the shining doors were shut.She rushed to the girl's bed like a gust of wind,and stood above her head, and spoke a word to her,appearing as the daughter of Dymas, famous for his ships,who was the same age as her, and was dear to her heart.Resembling her, grey-eyed Athena spoke to her:Nausicaa, why did your mother bear you to be so careless?Your clothes lie uncared for, all of them gleaming, andyour marriage is near, when you must dress yourselfin beautiful things, and give some to those who lead you.For from these things good report rises among people,and your father and your honored mother rejoice.But let us go to wash at the appearing Dawn;and I will come along with you as a helper, so that as quickly as possibleyou may be ready, since you will not be a maiden much longer;for already the best men throughout the districtamong all the Phaeacians are courting you, where your own family is.But come, urge your famous father at daybreakto get the mules and the wagon ready, which may carryyour belts and robes and gleaming blankets.And for you yourself it is much better than goingon foot; for the washing places are far from the city.So saying, grey-eyed Athena leftfor Olympus, where they say the gods' seat is alwayssecure. It is not shaken by any winds, nor everwet with rain, nor does snow come near it, but the clear airspreads out quite cloudless, and a white gleam runs over it;in it the blessed gods take pleasure every day.There grey-eyed Athena went, when she had explained things to the girl.At once Dawn of the beautiful throne came, who wokefair-robed Nausicaa; and she at once wondered at the dream,and she went through the house to tell her parents,her dear father and mother; and she found them inside.Her mother sat at the hearth with her women servantsspinning sea-purple wool; and she met her fatheras he was going out to the famous kings,to the council, where the proud Phaeacians called him.She stood very close and spoke to her dear father:Dear papa, would you not get ready for me a wagontall and with good wheels, so that I can take the famous clothesto the river to wash, which lie dirtied for me?And it is proper for you too, when you sit among the leading men,to plan counsels wearing clean clothes on your skin.And five dear sons have been born to you in the halls,two of them married, and three flourishing young men;and they always want, with newly washed clothes,to go to the dancing place; and all this is a concern to my heart.So she spoke; for she was ashamed to name her blooming marriageto her dear father. But he understood everything and answered with a word:I do not begrudge you the mules, child, nor anything else.Go on; and the servants will get the wagon ready,tall and with good wheels, fitted with a frame on top.So saying, he called to the servants, and they obeyed.They brought out from the yard the well-wheeled mule wagonand brought up the mules and yoked them under the wagon;and the girl brought shining clothing from the bedroom.And she laid it on the well-polished wagon,and her mother put satisfying food in a basket,of every kind, and put in cooked food, and poured in winein a goatskin; and the girl climbed onto the wagon.And she gave liquid olive oil in a golden flask,so that she and her women maids could anoint themselves.And she took the whip and the gleaming reins,and struck them to drive; and there was a clatter of the two mules.They strained on without stopping, and carried the clothing and her,not her alone, for the other maids went along with her too.When they came to the beautiful stream of the river,where the washing places were always there, and plenty of waterflowed out, very good for washing even dirty things,there they unhitched the mules from the wagon.And they drove them along the swirling riverto graze on honey-sweet grass; and they from the wagontook the clothes in their hands and carried them into the dark water,and trampled them in the pits quickly, racing each other.But when they had washed and cleaned off all the dirt,they spread them out in a row along the shore of the sea, where mostthe sea washed the pebbles up onto the land.And they, after bathing and anointing themselves richly with oil,then took their meal beside the banks of the river,and the clothes waited for the sun's rays to dry them.But when the maids and she herself had enjoyed the food,they played with a ball, throwing off their headscarves;and white-armed Nausicaa began the song for them.As Artemis the arrow-pourer goes through the mountains,either along very tall Taygetus or Erymanthus,taking pleasure in boars and swift deer;and with her the nymphs, the daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus,the ones of the fields, play, and Leto rejoices in her heart;and above all of them she holds her head and forehead,and she is easily recognized, and all of them are beautiful;so the unwedded maiden stood out among her maids.But when she was about to go back home again,after yoking the mules and folding the beautiful clothes,then again the goddess, grey-eyed Athena, thought of another thing:that Odysseus might wake up, and see the fair-faced girl,who might guide him to the city of the Phaeacian men.Then the princess threw the ball at a maid;she missed the maid, and threw it into a deep whirlpool;and they screamed loudly; and noble Odysseus woke up,and sitting up he pondered in his mind and heart:Oh no, to the land of what mortals have I come now?Are they violent and savage and not just,or are they hospitable, and is their mind god-fearing?As of girls a woman's cry came around me,of nymphs, who hold the steep peaks of the mountainsand the springs of rivers and the grassy meadows.Or am I somewhere near people who speak with a human voice?But come, I will try for myself and see.So saying, noble Odysseus crept out from under the bushes,and from the thick wood he broke off a leafy branch with his thick hand,full of leaves, to wrap the man's private parts around his body.He went like a mountain-raised lion trusting in its strength,which goes on wet and blown by the wind, and in it its two eyesblaze; but it goes after cattle or sheepor wild deer; and its belly commands itto try for the flocks and come into the close-built fold;so Odysseus was about to mix with the fair-haired girls,though he was naked; for need had come upon him.He appeared terrible to them, disfigured by the salt sea,and they fled scattered to the jutting shores;but the daughter of Alcinous alone stayed; for Athenaput courage in her heart and took fear from her limbs.She stood facing him and held her ground; and Odysseus ponderedwhether he should grasp her knees and beg the fair-faced girl,or beg her from a distance with gentle words,in case she would show him the city and give him clothes.So to him thinking, it seemed the better thingto beg with gentle words from a distance,so that, if he grasped her knees, the girl would not be angry in her heart.At once he spoke a gentle and clever word:I beg you, lady: are you some god, or a mortal?If you are some god, one of those who hold the wide heaven,then to Artemis, daughter of great Zeus, Iliken you most closely in form and size and build.But if you are one of the mortals, who live on the earth,three times blessed are your father and your honored mother,three times blessed your brothers; surely their heartis always warmed with gladness because of you,as they look at such a young shoot entering the dance.But that man is beyond others the most blessed in his heart,who, loaded with bride gifts, leads you home.For never yet have I seen with my eyes such a mortal,neither a man nor a woman; awe holds me as I look.On Delos once, beside the altar of Apollo,I noticed a young shoot of a palm growing up;for I went there too, and a great crowd followed me,on the journey on which evils were going to befall me.And just so, seeing that, I marveled in my heartfor a long time, since no such tree had ever grown up from the earth,as you, lady, I wonder at and marvel at, and I fear terriblyto touch your knees; but a hard grief comes over me.Yesterday, on the twentieth day, I escaped the wine-dark sea;during that time the wave and the swift storms kept carrying mefrom the island of Ogygia. Now a god threw me down here,so that I may perhaps suffer some evil even here too; for I do not thinkit will stop, but the gods will still accomplish many things before that.But, lady, take pity; for after suffering many evilsI have come to you first, and of the others I know no oneof the men who hold this city and this land.Show me the town, and give me a rag to put around me,if perhaps you had some wrapping of cloths when you came here.May the gods give you as much as you desire in your heart:a husband and a house, and may they grant you goodagreement of mind; for nothing is better or finerthan when a man and wife keep a houseagreeing in their thoughts; great grief to their enemies,but joy to their friends, and most of all they themselves hear of it.And white-armed Nausicaa answered him in turn:Stranger, since you seem neither a bad man nor a foolish one,Zeus himself, the Olympian, hands out wealth to people,to the good and the bad, to each as he wishes;and perhaps he has given this to you, and you must endure it anyway.But now, since you have come to our city and land,you will lack neither clothing nor anything elsethat is proper for a suffering suppliant who meets one.I will show you the town, and I will tell you the name of the people.The Phaeacians hold this city and this land,and I am the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,and from him come the strength and power of the Phaeacians.She spoke, and called to her fair-haired maids:Stand by me, maids; where are you running, seeing a man?Surely you do not think he is some hostile man?There is no such living mortal man, nor will there be,who will come to the land of the Phaeacian menbringing war; for they are very dear to the immortals.We live far away in the much-surging sea,at the very edge, and no other mortal mixes with us.But this is some wretched man wandering who has come here,whom we must now take care of; for all are from Zeus,both strangers and beggars, and the gift is small but dear.But give, maids, the stranger food and drink,and bathe him in the river, where there is shelter from the wind.So she spoke, and they stood and called to each other,and they sat Odysseus down in the shelter, as Nausicaathe daughter of great-hearted Alcinous had commanded;and beside him they laid a cloak and a tunic, clothes,and they gave liquid olive oil in a golden flask,and they told him to bathe in the streams of the river.Then noble Odysseus spoke to the maids:Maids, stand back so far away, so that I myselfmay wash the salt brine from my shoulders, and all overrub myself with oil; for the ointment has been off my skin for a long time.And I will not bathe in front of you; for I am ashamedto strip naked among fair-haired girls.So he spoke, and they went away, and told the girl.But noble Odysseus washed from his body in the riverthe brine, which covered his back and broad shoulders,and from his head he wiped off the scum of the barren sea.But when he had bathed all over and anointed himself richly with oil,and put on the clothes which the unwedded maiden gave him,then Athena, born of Zeus, made himgreater to look at and broader, and down from his headshe sent curly hair, like a hyacinth flower.As when a man pours gold over silver,a skilled man, whom Hephaestus taught and Pallas Athenaevery kind of craft, and he finishes graceful works,so she poured grace over his head and shoulders.Then he went and sat apart on the shore of the sea,shining with beauty and graces; and the girl looked at him.Then she spoke to her fair-haired maids:Listen to me, white-armed maids, so that I may say something.Not against the will of all the gods, who hold Olympus,does this man mix with the godlike Phaeacians;for before he seemed to me unseemly,but now he is like the gods, who hold the wide heaven.If only such a man might be called my husband,living here, and it might please him to stay here.But give, maids, the stranger food and drink.So she spoke, and they listened to her well and obeyed,and set beside Odysseus food and drink.And much-enduring noble Odysseus drank and ategreedily; for he had been without food for a long time.But white-armed Nausicaa thought of other things:she folded the clothes and laid them on the beautiful wagon,and yoked the strong-hoofed mules, and climbed up herself,and urged Odysseus on, and spoke a word and addressed him:Get up now, stranger, and go to the city, so that I may send youto the house of my father, the wise-hearted, where I say youwill know all the Phaeacians, as many as are the best.But do exactly as I say, and you seem to me not to be senseless.As long as we go through the fields and the works of men,for that time, with the maids, behind the mules and the wagon,walk quickly; and I will lead the way.But when we come to the city, around which there is a wallhigh, and a beautiful harbor on either side of the city,and a narrow entrance; and the curved shipsare drawn up along the road; for each has its own mooring place.And there their assembly is around a beautiful place of Poseidon,fitted with drawn stones buried in the ground.And there they busy themselves with the gear of the black ships,cables and ropes, and they sharpen oars.For the Phaeacians do not care about bow or quiver,but about masts and oars of ships and the trim ships,in which, exulting, they cross the grey sea.I avoid their harsh talk, lest someone afterwardfind fault with me; for they are very arrogant in the district.And some worse man might meet me and say this:Who is this that follows Nausicaa, handsome and tall,a stranger? Where did she find him? He will be her husband.Either she took in some wanderer from his ship,from men from far away, since none are near;or some god came, greatly prayed for, to her as she prayed,coming down from heaven, and he will have her all her days.Better that she herself had gone and found a husbandfrom elsewhere; for surely she dishonors thesePhaeacians, who court her, many and noble.So they will say, and these would be reproaches to me.And I myself blame another woman, whoever does such things,who, against the will of her dear father and mother while they live,mixes with men, before a public marriage comes.Stranger, you then understand my word quickly, so that as quickly as possibleyou may get escort and return home from my father.You will find a glorious grove of Athena near the road,of poplars; and a spring flows in it, and around it a meadow;and there is my father's precinct and a flourishing orchard,as far from the town as a man can shout.Sit there and wait for a time, until wecome to the town and reach my father's house.But when you think we have arrived at the house,then go to the city of the Phaeacians and askfor the house of my father, great-hearted Alcinous.It is easy to recognize, and even a foolish child could lead youto it; for not at all like the otherPhaeacian houses is the house of Alcinousthe hero built. But when the house and the courtyard cover you,go very quickly through the hall, until you cometo my mother; and she sits at the hearth in the light of the fire,spinning sea-purple wool, a wonder to look at,leaning against a pillar; and her maids sit behind her.And there my father's throne is set close to hers,on which he sits and drinks wine, like an immortal.Passing by him, throw your hands around my mother's knees,so that you may see your day of return,rejoicing and quickly, even if you are very far away.If she has kind thoughts for you in her heart,then there is hope for you to see your friends and cometo your well-built house and your own native land.So saying, she lashed the mules with the shining whip;and they quickly left the streams of the river.They trotted well, and turned their feet well;and she drove very well, so that on foot might followthe maids and Odysseus, and with her mind she applied the whip.And the sun set, and they came to the glorious grovesacred to Athena, where noble Odysseus sat down.At once then he prayed to the daughter of great Zeus:Hear me, child of aegis-bearing Zeus, Unwearied One;now indeed hear me, since never before did you hear mewhen I was being crushed, when the glorious Earth-shaker crushed me.Grant that I come to the Phaeacians as one dear and pitied.So he spoke praying, and Pallas Athena heard him.But she did not yet appear to him face to face; for she was ashamedbefore her father's brother; and he raged fiercelyagainst godlike Odysseus before he reached his own land.