The Odyssey
Page 18
But be sure to do as I say--and you don't strike me as witless.
As long as we're out in the countryside, fields and farmland,
come briskly along with my girls behind the mules
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and wagon; I'll lead the way. But when we're about
to enter the city3--there's a high wall round it, a fine
harbor on either side of the city, with a narrow entrance,
and trim vessels are moored all along the way, each one
with a slip of its own, private docking for everyone;
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there too is the place of assembly, by Poseidon's fine precinct,
marked out with great deep-bedded quarried stones,
and it's there that they busy themselves with the black ships' tackle,
their cables and sails, and there that they trim their oar blades;
for bows and quivers are not the Phaiakians' concern,
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but ships' masts, oars, and the trim vessels themselves,
in which with delight they traverse the sea's grey waters.
It's their rude comments I want to avoid, the chance that later
some man may blame me--there are unkind folk among us--
and one of the nastier sort might say if he met us:
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'Who's this tall handsome stranger tagging after Nausikaa?
Where did she pick him up? Her husband-to-be, no doubt!
Some stray off a ship she'll be bringing in, I suppose,
from a foreign crew--there aren't any from hereabouts--
unless some god's come down from heaven in answer
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to her endless prayers, and she'll keep him around for life!
Better, if she herself went off and found a husband
elsewhere, since she despises these men here in the district,
though many top-class Phaiakians are courting her.' So they'll say,
and such remarks would attach a scandal to my name.
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I too would disapprove if another girl behaved thus--
one that in defiance of her dear father and mother
consorted with men before reaching the day of public marriage.
So, stranger, quickly grasp what I'm telling you, to ensure
prompt assistance from my father in getting you back home.
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You'll find a fine grove of Athene near the road, a grove
of poplars; a spring gushes up in it, there's a meadow round it.
That's where my father's estate is, his flourishing orchard--
as far from town as the shout of a man will carry.
Sit down there and wait a while, long enough for us
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to get to the city, arrive at my father's house. But when
you reckon we've made it home, then yourself go on
to the city of the Phaiakians, and ask around
where you can find the house of great-hearted Alkinoos.
It's easily recognized--even a child could guide you,
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the merest infant, since the other Phaiakians' houses
aren't built on a scale to match the abode of heroic
Alkinoos! Then, when you reach that the house and courtyard,
go quickly through the main hall, until you come upon
my mother--you'll find her sitting in firelight by the hearth,
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spinning sea-purple yarn on a distaff, a wonderful sight,
leaning against a pillar, her maids seated behind her;
and there is my father's throne, set close by her side,
where he sits and drinks his wine like an immortal.
Go on past him, throw your arms round the knees
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of my mother, if you're to get a quick and happy glimpse
of your day of homecoming, no matter how far you've come:
it's if she looks on you with favor in her heart
that there's hope for you of seeing your people, of getting
back to your own strong house and your native country."
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So saying, she lashed out with her shining whip at the mules,
and they quickly took off, away from the flowing river:
they trotted well, well did they ply their feet, and she drove
taking good care that Odysseus and her handmaids
could keep up on foot, used her whip very sparingly.
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As the sun set they reached the famous grove, sacred
to Athene. Here godlike Odysseus sat himself down,
and at once made his prayer to great Zeus' daughter: "Hear me,
unwearying child of Zeus of the aegis! Listen now,
as you failed to listen before when I was stricken,
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when the far-famed Earth-Shaker struck me! Grant that now
when I come among the Phaiakians I'm befriended and pitied."
So he spoke in prayer, and Pallas Athene heard him,
but did not yet show herself to him, for she respected
her father's brother, who continued to rage against
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godlike Odysseus until he got back to his own country.
Book 7
So while Odysseus prayed there, godlike and much-enduring,
the strength of her two mules bore the girl back to town.
When she arrived at her father's renowned abode
she pulled up in the forecourt. Her brothers, men like immortals,
came out, crowded round her, unyoked the mules
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from the wagon, carried the laundry indoors, while she
herself went to her room. There a fire was lit for her by
an old crone from Apeire, her chambermaid, Eurymedousa.
Long ago the trim ships had brought her back from Apeire,
and they'd chosen her as a prize for Alkinoos, since he ruled
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over all the Phaiakians: the people obeyed him like a god.
She'd reared white-armed Nausikaa in his halls; now it was she
who lit her a fire and made ready her supper in her room.
Then Odysseus got up to go to the city, and Athene,
wishing him well, shed a thick mist round about him,
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so that no great-hearted Phaiakian whom he encountered
should address him in uncivil terms, ask who he might be;
then, when he was about to enter the pleasant city,
the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, met him, in the guise
of a young virginal girl with a pitcher. She stopped before him,
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and godlike Odysseus questioned her, saying: "My child,
could you not guide me to the house of a man by name
Alkinoos, who's the ruler among the people here?
I'm a long-suffering stranger, come from a remote
and far-off country, so I possess no knowledge
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of the people who occupy this city and its land."
Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, answered him, saying:
"Yes, stranger, father, I can show you the house you want,
for this man's the neighbor of my own illustrious father!
Just keep silent and follow where I lead the way--
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Don't catch anyone's eye, or ask them questions,
for the folk hereabouts have little patience with strangers,
and are short on welcome for those from another country.
They rely on the swiftness of the racing vessels in which
they traverse the sea's great gulf, a gift from the Earth-Shaker:
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their ships contrive all the speed of a wing or a thought."
Having said this, Pallas Athene then led the way
briskly, and he followed in the goddess' footsteps.
Nor did the Phaiakians, famed
for their ships, observe him
going through the city among them; fair-tressed Athene,
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dread goddess, did not allow it: she shed a marvelous
mist over him, out of the kindness she bore him in her heart.
Odysseus gazed in wonder at the trim ships and the harbors,
the heroes' assembly places, the city walls long and high
and fitted with palisades, a marvelous sight to behold.
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When they arrived at the king's magnificent dwelling
the first to speak was the goddess, grey-eyed Athene:
"Here is the house, stranger, father, that you asked me to show you!
You'll find Zeus' nurslings, the princes, right inside there
eating their dinner. Go in, and don't let your heart
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show alarm: a man whose every move speaks boldness
does better, even supposing he comes from some other country.
The first person you'll met in the great hall is its mistress:
Arete's the name by which she's known, and she comes
of the very same stock that bred Alkinoos, the king.
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Nausithoos first Poseidon, the Earth-Shaker,
sired on Periboia, a woman of matchless beauty,
the youngest daughter of great-hearted Eurymedon,
who once ruled as king over the arrogant Giants,
but destroyed his reckless people and was destroyed himself.
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With her Poseidon lay in love and begot a son,
great-hearted Nausithoos, who ruled the Phaiakians,
and Nausithoos sired Alkinoos and Rhexenor.
Apollo, the silver-bowed, struck Rhexenor down
while a sonless bridegroom, who left one daughter only,
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Arete: her Alkinoos took as his wife, and honored
as no other woman upon this earth is honored
of all those who run their households subject to men,
so honored at heart is she, and ever has been,
by her dear children and by Alkinoos himself,
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and by the people, who look upon her as a goddess
and so greet her when she goes abroad through the city;
for she herself is in no way lacking in judgment
and settles disputes with goodwill, even those between men.
So if she's well disposed toward you, then there's a chance
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that you'll get to see your own people, make it back home
to your high-roofed house and your own native land."
So saying, grey-eyed Athene now departed, over
the unharvested sea, took off from delightful Scheria
and came to Marathon and wide-streeted Athens,
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and entered the close-set house of Erechtheus. But Odysseus
went to Alkinoos' splendid abode. Much his heart pondered
as he stood there, even before he reached its brazen threshold,
for there was a radiance as of the sun or the moon
over the high-roofed home of great-hearted Alkinoos.
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Bronze walls stretched this way and that to the inmost
room from the threshold, framed by a cobalt frieze;
golden doors safeguarded the close-built inner domain,
with silver doorposts set in a threshold of bronze,
and silver the lintel above, and of gold the door-latch.
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On either side of each door stood gold and silver dogs
created with consummate skill by Hephaistos and set there
to keep watch over the house of great-hearted Alkinoos:
immortal creatures and ageless all their days.
Inside, chairs were set on both sides along the wall
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from the threshold through to the inmost chamber, and on them
were laid soft, fine-woven covers, the work of women,
and here it was that the Phaiakian leaders would sit,
drinking and eating: unfailing abundance was theirs.
Youths made of gold there were too, standing on solid
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pedestals, who held blazing torches in their hands
to light up the night for those at dinner in the great hall.
And there were fifty house slaves there in the hall, women,
of whom some were grinding yellow grain in a mill
and others weaving on looms or twirling the distaff
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as they sat there like a tall aspen's flickering leaves;
and from the close-woven fabrics dripped the soft oil.1
For just as Phaiakian men were skilled above all others
at steering a swift ship over the deep, so too their women
were expert weavers: Athene had given them unsurpassed
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understanding of exquisite handiwork, and clever minds.
Outside the courtyard, close to the doors, was a large
four-acre orchard, with a hedge in place all round it:
there fruit trees flourished, luxuriant and tall,
pears, pomegranates, ripe-fruited apple trees,
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sweet fig trees and abundantly fertile olives.
The produce of these never failed or perished, either
in winter or summer, but lasted throughout the year:
some fruits the west wind's breeze grew, others it ripened;
pear mellowed upon pear here, apple on apple,
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grape cluster upon cluster, fig upon fig. There too
was rooted a vineyard, richly productive, of which
one part was a warm sun-trap on level ground for drying,
while clusters elsewhere were being culled at vintage
or trodden; and grapes still unripe, out in front, were either
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shedding their blossom or darkening to purple. There too,
by the last row of vines, grew well-planned vegetable beds
of every variety, bright green the whole year through;
and there were two springs, one discharging its water over
the whole garden, the other rising by the courtyard threshold
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toward the high house. From this the townsfolk drew their water.
Such were the gods' fine gifts in Alkinoos' domain.
Much-enduring godlike Odysseus stood there and gazed;
But when in his heart he'd marveled at everything, then
he quickly stepped over the threshold and into the building,
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where he found the Phaiakians' leaders and counselors pouring
libations from their cups to Argos' far-sighted slayer,
to whom they would pour the last drink when thinking of bedtime.
Much-enduring godlike Odysseus went through the hall, concealed
by the thick mist that Athene had earlier shed around him
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till he came to where Arete was, and the king Alkinoos.
About the knees of Arete, Odysseus now threw his arms,
and then at once the divine mist lifted from him,
and all in the hall fell silent at the sight of the man, and they
stared at him in amazement as Odysseus made his appeal:
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"Arete, godlike Rhexenor's daughter, after much hardship
I come as a suppliant to your husband and your knees--
and to those dining here--may the gods grant them plenty
in this life, and may each of them bequeath to his children
the wealth in his halls, and all honors his people gave him!
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I beg you, give me an escort to get to my own country,
and soon: I've long suffered much, far from my dear ones."
So saying, down he sat at the hearth, among the ashes
there spoke among them the elderly hero Echeneos,
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a man who'd seen more years than any Phaiakian,
well skilled at speaking, well versed in ancient wisdom: