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So here Odysseus slept, overcome by
sleep and toil; but Athena went off to the dêmos and
city of the Phaeacians - a people who used to live in the fair town
of Hypereia, near the lawless Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes were
stronger in force [biê] than they and plundered
them, so their king Nausithoos moved them thence and settled them in
Scheria, far from all other people. He surrounded the city with a
wall, built houses and temples, and divided the lands among his
people; but he was dead and gone to the house of Hades, and King
Alkinoos, whose counsels were inspired of heaven, was now reigning.
To his house, then, did Athena go in furtherance of the return
[nostos] of Odysseus.
She went straight to the
beautifully decorated bedroom in which there slept a girl who was as
lovely as a goddess, Nausicaa, daughter to King Alkinoos. Two maid
servants were sleeping near her, both very pretty, one on either side
of the doorway, which was closed with well-made folding doors. Athena
took the form of the famous sea leader Dymas’ daughter, who was
a bosom friend of Nausicaa and just her own age; then, coming up to
the girl's bedside like a breath of wind, she hovered over her
head and said:
"Nausicaa, what can your mother
have been about, to have such a lazy daughter? Here are your clothes
all lying in disorder, yet you are going to be married almost
immediately, and should not only be well dressed yourself, but should
find good clothes for those who attend you. This is the way to get
yourself a good name, and to make your father and mother proud of
you. Suppose, then, that we make tomorrow a washing day, and start at
daybreak. I will come and help you so that you may have everything
ready as soon as possible, for all the best young men throughout your
own dêmos are courting you, and you are not going to
remain a young girl much longer. Ask your father, therefore, to have
a wagon and mules ready for us at daybreak, to take the rugs, robes,
and belts; and you can ride, too, which will be much pleasanter for
you than walking, for the washing-cisterns are some way from the
town."
When she had said this Athena went
away to Olympus, which they say is the everlasting home of the gods.
Here no wind beats roughly, and neither rain nor snow can fall; but
it abides in everlasting sunshine and in a great peacefulness of
light, wherein the blessed gods are illumined for ever and ever. This
was the place to which the goddess went when she had given
instructions to the girl.
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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