"O queen," he said, "I implore
your aid - but tell me, are you a goddess or are you a mortal woman?
If you are a goddess and dwell in heaven, I can only conjecture that
you are Zeus’ daughter Artemis, for your face and figure
resemble none but hers; if on the other hand you are a mortal and
live on earth, thrice happy are your father and mother - thrice
happy, too, are your brothers and sisters; how proud and delighted
they must feel when they see so fair a scion as yourself going out to
a dance [khoros]; most happy, however, of all will he
be whose wedding gifts have been the richest, and who takes you to
his own home. I never yet saw any one so beautiful, neither man nor
woman, and am lost in admiration as I behold you. I can only compare
you to a young palm tree which I saw when I was at Delos growing near
the altar of Apollo - for I was there, too, with many people after
me, when I was on that journey which has been the source of all my
troubles. Never yet did such a young plant shoot out of the ground as
that was, and I admired and wondered at it exactly as I now admire
and wonder at yourself. I dare not clasp your knees, but I am in
great distress [penthos]; yesterday made the twentieth
day that I had been tossing about upon the sea. The winds and waves
have taken me all the way from the Ogygian island, and now a
daimôn has flung me upon this coast that I may endure
still further suffering; for I do not think that I have yet come to
the end of it, but rather that the gods have still much evil in store
for me.
"And now, O queen, have pity upon
me, for you are the first person I have met, and I know no one else
in this country. Show me the way to your town, and let me have
anything that you may have brought here to wrap your clothes in. May
heaven grant you in all things your heart's desire - husband,
house, and a happy, peaceful home; for there is nothing better in
this world than that man and wife should be of one mind in a house.
It discomfits their enemies, makes the hearts of their friends glad,
and they themselves know more about it than any one."
To this Nausicaa answered,
"Stranger, you appear to be a sensible, well-disposed person. There
is no accounting for luck; Zeus gives prosperity
[olbos] to rich and poor just as he chooses, so you
must take what he has seen fit to send you, and make the best of it.
Now, however, that you have come to this our country, you shall not
want for clothes nor for anything else that a foreigner in distress
may reasonably look for. I will show you the way to the town, and
will tell you the name of our people: we are called Phaeacians, and I
am daughter to Alkinoos, in whom the whole strength and power
[biê] of the state is vested."
Then she called her maids and
said, "Stay where you are, you girls. Can you not see a man without
running away from him? Do you take him for a robber or a murderer?
Neither he nor any one else can come here to do us Phaeacians any
harm, for we are dear to the gods, and live apart on a land's
end that juts into the sounding sea, and have nothing to do with any
other people. This is only some poor man who has lost his way, and we
must be kind to him, for strangers and foreigners in distress are
under Zeus’ protection, and will take what they can get and be
thankful; so, girls, give the poor man something to eat and drink,
and wash him in the stream at some place that is sheltered from the
wind."
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