<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410334" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 6</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">So here Ulysses slept, overcome by sleep and toil; but Minerva<br>went off to the country and city of the Phaecians- a people who used<br>to live in the fair town of Hypereia, near the lawless Cyclopes. Now<br>the Cyclopes were stronger than they and plundered them, so their king<br>Nausithous moved them thence and settled them in Scheria, far from all<br>other people. He surrounded the city with a wall, built houses and<br>temples, and divided the lands among his people; but he was dead and<br>gone to the house of Hades, and King Alcinous, whose counsels were<br>inspired of heaven, was now reigning. To his house, then, did<br>Minerva hie in furtherance of the return of Ulysses.<br>She went straight to the beautifully decorated bedroom in which<br>there slept a girl who was as lovely as a goddess, Nausicaa,<br>daughter to King Alcinous. Two maid servants were sleeping near her,<br>both very pretty, one on either side of the doorway, which was<br>closed with well-made folding doors. Minerva took the form of the<br>famous sea captain Dymas's daughter, who was a bosom friend of<br>Nausicaa and just her own age; then, coming up to the girl's bedside<br>like a breath of wind, she hovered over her head and said:<br>"Nausicaa, what can your mother have been about, to have such a lazy<br>daughter? Here are your clothes all lying in disorder, yet you are<br>going to be married almost immediately, and should not only be well<br>dressed yourself, but should find good clothes for those who attend<br>you. This is the way to get yourself a good name, and to make your<br>father and mother proud of you. Suppose, then, that we make tomorrow a<br>washing day, and start at daybreak. I will come and help you so that<br>you may have everything ready as soon as possible, for all the best<br>young men among your own people are courting you, and you are not<br>going to remain a maid much longer. Ask your father, therefore, to<br>have a waggon and mules ready for us at daybreak, to take the rugs,<br>robes, and girdles; and you can ride, too, which will be much<br>pleasanter for you than walking, for the washing-cisterns are some way<br>from the town."<br>When she had said this Minerva went away to Olympus, which they<br>say is the everlasting home of the gods. Here no wind beats roughly,<br>and neither rain nor snow can fall; but it abides in everlasting<br>sunshine and in a great peacefulness of light, wherein the blessed<br>gods are illumined for ever and ever. This was the place to which<br>the goddess went when she had given instructions to the girl.<br>By and by morning came and woke Nausicaa, who began wondering<br>about her dream; she therefore went to the other end of the house to<br>tell her father and mother all about it, and found them in their own<br>room. Her mother was sitting by the fireside spinning her purple<br>yarn with her maids around her, and she happened to catch her father<br>just as he was going out to attend a meeting of the town council,<br>which the Phaeacian aldermen had convened. She stopped him and said:<br>"Papa dear, could you manage to let me have a good big waggon? I<br>want to take all our dirty clothes to the river and wash them. You are<br>the chief man here, so it is only right that you should have a clean<br>shirt when you attend meetings of the council. Moreover, you have five<br>sons at home, two of them married, while the other three are<br>good-looking bachelors; you know they always like to have clean<br>linen when they go to a dance, and I have been thinking about all<br>this."<br>She did not say a word about her own wedding, for she did not like<br>to, but her father knew and said, "You shall have the mules, my<br>love, and whatever else you have a mind for. Be off with you, and<br>the men shall get you a good strong waggon with a body to it that will<br>hold all your clothes."<br>On this he gave his orders to the servants, who got the waggon<br>out, harnessed the mules, and put them to, while the girl brought<br>the clothes down from the linen room and placed them on the waggon.<br>Her mother prepared her a basket of provisions with all sorts of<br>good things, and a goat skin full of wine; the girl now got into the<br>waggon, and her mother gave her also a golden cruse of oil, that she<br>and her women might anoint themselves. Then she took the whip and<br>reins and lashed the mules on, whereon they set off, and their hoofs<br>clattered on the road. They pulled without flagging, and carried not<br>only Nausicaa and her wash of clothes, but the maids also who were<br>with her.<br>When they reached the water side they went to the<br>washing-cisterns, through which there ran at all times enough pure<br>water to wash any quantity of linen, no matter how dirty. Here they<br>unharnessed the mules and turned them out to feed on the sweet juicy<br>herbage that grew by the water side. They took the clothes out of<br>the waggon, put them in the water, and vied with one another in<br>treading them in the pits to get the dirt out. After they had washed<br>them and got them quite clean, they laid them out by the sea side,<br>where the waves had raised a high beach of shingle, and set about<br>washing themselves and anointing themselves with olive oil. Then<br>they got their dinner by the side of the stream, and waited for the<br>sun to finish drying the clothes. When they had done dinner they threw<br>off the veils that covered their heads and began to play at ball,<br>while Nausicaa sang for them. As the huntress Diana goes forth upon<br>the mountains of Taygetus or Erymanthus to hunt wild boars or deer,<br>and the wood-nymphs, daughters of Aegis-bearing Jove, take their sport<br>along with her (then is Leto proud at seeing her daughter stand a full<br>head taller than the others, and eclipse the loveliest amid a whole<br>bevy of beauties), even so did the girl outshine her handmaids.<br>When it was time for them to start home, and they were folding the<br>clothes and putting them into the waggon, Minerva began to consider<br>how Ulysses should wake up and see the handsome girl who was to<br>conduct him to the city of the Phaeacians. The girl, therefore,<br>threw a ball at one of the maids, which missed her and fell into<br>deep water. On this they all shouted, and the noise they made woke<br>Ulysses, who sat up in his bed of leaves and began to wonder what it<br>might all be.<br>"Alas," said he to himself, "what kind of people have I come<br>amongst? Are they cruel, savage, and uncivilized, or hospitable and<br>humane? I seem to hear the voices of young women, and they sound<br>like those of the nymphs that haunt mountain tops, or springs of<br>rivers and meadows of green grass. At any rate I am among a race of<br>men and women. Let me try if I cannot manage to get a look at them."<br>As he said this he crept from under his bush, and broke off a<br>bough covered with thick leaves to hide his nakedness. He looked<br>like some lion of the wilderness that stalks about exulting in his<br>strength and defying both wind and rain; his eyes glare as he prowls<br>in quest of oxen, sheep, or deer, for he is famished, and will dare<br>break even into a well-fenced homestead, trying to get at the sheep-<br>even such did Ulysses seem to the young women, as he drew near to them<br>all naked as he was, for he was in great want. On seeing one so<br>unkempt and so begrimed with salt water, the others scampered off<br>along the spits that jutted out into the sea, but the daughter of<br>Alcinous stood firm, for Minerva put courage into her heart and took<br>away all fear from her. She stood right in front of Ulysses, and he<br>doubted whether he should go up to her, throw himself at her feet, and<br>embrace her knees as a suppliant, or stay where he was and entreat her<br>to give him some clothes and show him the way to the town. In the<br>end he deemed it best to entreat her from a distance in case the<br>girl should take offence at his coming near enough to clasp her knees,<br>so he addressed her in honeyed and persuasive language.<br>"O queen," he said, "I implore your aid- but tell me, are you a<br>goddess or are you a mortal woman? If you are a goddess and dwell in<br>heaven, I can only conjecture that you are Jove's daughter Diana,<br>for your face and figure resemble none but hers; if on the other<br>hand you are a mortal and live on earth, thrice happy are your<br>father and mother- thrice happy, too, are your brothers and sisters;<br>how proud and delighted they must feel when they see so fair a scion<br>as yourself going out to a dance; most happy, however, of all will<br>he be whose wedding gifts have been the richest, and who takes you<br>to his own home. I never yet saw any one so beautiful, neither man nor<br>woman, and am lost in admiration as I behold you. I can only compare<br>you to a young palm tree which I saw when I was at Delos growing<br>near the altar of Apollo- for I was there, too, with much people after<br>me, when I was on that journey which has been the source of all my<br>troubles. Never yet did such a young plant shoot out of the ground<br>as that was, and I admired and wondered at it exactly as I now<br>admire and wonder at yourself. I dare not clasp your knees, but I am<br>in great distress; yesterday made the twentieth day that I had been<br>tossing about upon the sea. The winds and waves have taken me all<br>the way from the Ogygian island, and now fate has flung me upon this<br>coast that I may endure still further suffering; for I do not think<br>that I have yet come to the end of it, but rather that heaven has<br>still much evil in store for me.<br>"And now, O queen, have pity upon me, for you are the first person I<br>have met, and I know no one else in this country. Show me the way to<br>your town, and let me have anything that you may have brought hither<br>to wrap your clothes in. May heaven grant you in all things your<br>heart's desire- husband, house, and a happy, peaceful home; for<br>there is nothing better in this world than that man and wife should be<br>of one mind in a house. It discomfits their enemies, makes the<br>hearts of their friends glad, and they themselves know more about it<br>than any one."<br>To this Nausicaa answered, "Stranger, you appear to be a sensible,<br>well-disposed person. There is no accounting for luck; Jove gives<br>prosperity to rich and poor just as he chooses, so you must take<br>what he has seen fit to send you, and make the best of it. Now,<br>however, that you have come to this our country, you shall not want<br>for clothes nor for anything else that a foreigner in distress may<br>reasonably look for. I will show you the way to the town, and will<br>tell you the name of our people; we are called Phaeacians, and I am<br>daughter to Alcinous, in whom the whole power of the state is vested."<br>Then she called her maids and said, "Stay where you are, you<br>girls. Can you not see a man without running away from him? Do you<br>take him for a robber or a murderer? Neither he nor any one else can<br>come here to do us Phaeacians any harm, for we are dear to the gods,<br>and live apart on a land's end that juts into the sounding sea, and<br>have nothing to do with any other people. This is only some poor man<br>who has lost his way, and we must be kind to him, for strangers and<br>foreigners in distress are under Jove's protection, and will take what<br>they can get and be thankful; so, girls, give the poor fellow<br>something to eat and drink, and wash him in the stream at some place<br>that is sheltered from the wind."<br>On this the maids left off running away and began calling one<br>another back. They made Ulysses sit down in the shelter as Nausicaa<br>had told them, and brought him a shirt and cloak. They also brought<br>him the little golden cruse of oil, and told him to go wash in the<br>stream. But Ulysses said, "Young women, please to stand a little on<br>one side that I may wash the brine from my shoulders and anoint myself<br>with oil, for it is long enough since my skin has had a drop of oil<br>upon it. I cannot wash as long as you all keep standing there. I am<br>ashamed to strip before a number of good-looking young women."<br>Then they stood on one side and went to tell the girl, while Ulysses<br>washed himself in the stream and scrubbed the brine from his back<br>and from his broad shoulders. When he had thoroughly washed himself,<br>and had got the brine out of his hair, he anointed himself with oil,<br>and put on the clothes which the girl had given him; Minerva then made<br>him look taller and stronger than before, she also made the hair<br>grow thick on the top of his head, and flow down in curls like<br>hyacinth blossoms; she glorified him about the head and shoulders as a<br>skilful workman who has studied art of all kinds under Vulcan and<br>Minerva enriches a piece of silver plate by gilding it- and his work<br>is full of beauty. Then he went and sat down a little way off upon the<br>beach, looking quite young and handsome, and the girl gazed on him<br>with admiration; then she said to her maids:<br>"Hush, my dears, for I want to say something. I believe the gods who<br>live in heaven have sent this man to the Phaeacians. When I first<br>saw him I thought him plain, but now his appearance is like that of<br>the gods who dwell in heaven. I should like my future husband to be<br>just such another as he is, if he would only stay here and not want to<br>go away. However, give him something to eat and drink."<br>They did as they were told, and set food before Ulysses, who ate and<br>drank ravenously, for it was long since he had had food of any kind.<br>Meanwhile, Nausicaa bethought her of another matter. She got the linen<br>folded and placed in the waggon, she then yoked the mules, and, as she<br>took her seat, she called Ulysses:<br>"Stranger," said she, "rise and let us be going back to the town;<br>I will introduce you at the house of my excellent father, where I<br>can tell you that you will meet all the best people among the<br>Phaecians. But be sure and do as I bid you, for you seem to be a<br>sensible person. As long as we are going past the fields- and farm<br>lands, follow briskly behind the waggon along with the maids and I<br>will lead the way myself. Presently, however, we shall come to the<br>town, where you will find a high wall running all round it, and a good<br>harbour on either side with a narrow entrance into the city, and the<br>ships will be drawn up by the road side, for every one has a place<br>where his own ship can lie. You will see the market place with a<br>temple of Neptune in the middle of it, and paved with large stones<br>bedded in the earth. Here people deal in ship's gear of all kinds,<br>such as cables and sails, and here, too, are the places where oars are<br>made, for the Phaeacians are not a nation of archers; they know<br>nothing about bows and arrows, but are a sea-faring folk, and pride<br>themselves on their masts, oars, and ships, with which they travel far<br>over the sea.<br>"I am afraid of the gossip and scandal that may be set on foot<br>against me later on; for the people here are very ill-natured, and<br>some low fellow, if he met us, might say, 'Who is this fine-looking<br>stranger that is going about with Nausicaa? Where did she End him? I<br>suppose she is going to marry him. Perhaps he is a vagabond sailor<br>whom she has taken from some foreign vessel, for we have no<br>neighbours; or some god has at last come down from heaven in answer to<br>her prayers, and she is going to live with him all the rest of her<br>life. It would be a good thing if she would take herself of I for sh<br>and find a husband somewhere else, for she will not look at one of the<br>many excellent young Phaeacians who are in with her.' This is the kind<br>of disparaging remark that would be made about me, and I could not<br>complain, for I should myself be scandalized at seeing any other<br>girl do the like, and go about with men in spite of everybody, while<br>her father and mother were still alive, and without having been<br>married in the face of all the world.<br>"If, therefore, you want my father to give you an escort and to help<br>you home, do as I bid you; you will see a beautiful grove of poplars<br>by the road side dedicated to Minerva; it has a well in it and a<br>meadow all round it. Here my father has a field of rich garden ground,<br>about as far from the town as a man' voice will carry. Sit down<br>there and wait for a while till the rest of us can get into the town<br>and reach my father's house. Then, when you think we must have done<br>this, come into the town and ask the way to the house of my father<br>Alcinous. You will have no difficulty in finding it; any child will<br>point it out to you, for no one else in the whole town has anything<br>like such a fine house as he has. When you have got past the gates and<br>through the outer court, go right across the inner court till you come<br>to my mother. You will find her sitting by the fire and spinning her<br>purple wool by firelight. It is a fine sight to see her as she leans<br>back against one of the bearing-posts with her maids all ranged behind<br>her. Close to her seat stands that of my father, on which he sits<br>and topes like an immortal god. Never mind him, but go up to my<br>mother, and lay your hands upon her knees if you would get home<br>quickly. If you can gain her over, you may hope to see your own<br>country again, no matter how distant it may be."<br>So saying she lashed the mules with her whip and they left the<br>river. The mules drew well and their hoofs went up and down upon the<br>road. She was careful not to go too fast for Ulysses and the maids who<br>were following on foot along with the waggon, so she plied her whip<br>with judgement. As the sun was going down they came to the sacred<br>grove of Minerva, and there Ulysses sat down and prayed to the<br>mighty daughter of Jove.<br>"Hear me," he cried, "daughter of Aegis-bearing Jove, unweariable,<br>hear me now, for you gave no heed to my prayers when Neptune was<br>wrecking me. Now, therefore, have pity upon me and grant that I may<br>find friends and be hospitably received by the Phaecians."<br>Thus did he pray, and Minerva heard his prayer, but she would not<br>show herself to him openly, for she was afraid of her uncle Neptune,<br>who was still furious in his endeavors to prevent Ulysses from getting<br>home.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410334" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 6 de Homer" data-description="So here Ulysses slept, overcome by sleep and toil; but Minerva/went off to the country and city of the Phaecians- a people who used/to live in the fair town of Hypereia, near the lawless Cyclopes. Now/the Cyclopes were stronger than they and plund..."></div> </div> </div>

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