The Odyssey Book 6

Viking Saga Style

As slept in stillness
 the sailor in leaves,
onward went Athena
 into the city.
The rivered land ruled by
 rich Alcinous,
Pallas found princess
 in palace, asleep.

Her name was Nausicaa,
 now in slumber.
Softly through sleep's dreams
 spoke the goddess:
"Rinse your raiments
 in river's waters.
Wake now to wash,
 woman to be."

Mules pulling maidens
 made haste to the river.
Laden with linens,
 her ladies took care.
Fed and finished,
 they fairly sported:
they bounced a ball
 in bright morning sun.

But Athena's aim
 now erred the casting.
The sailor from slumber
 suddenly woke.
Skin stained by salt,
 stripped of clothing,
he asked for aid
 of Alcinous' daughter.

"Glorious goddess,
 or girl of mortals?
As Artemis are you, 
 awash in beauty.
Humble my heart
 with help and charity:
show me your shores
 and shield me with cloth."

She gave him garments,
 gave him rich food.
Great like a god,
 he grew now in stature.
That men not mock her
 with malice and rumor,
she bade him bide quiet,
 back in Pallas' grove.

In grove of great goddess
 he gave all his thanks.
To Pallas he prayed
 for passage home safe:
"Grant me, oh goddess,
 the gift of wise words,
to ask as I will
 for aid to return."

Book 6 Synopsis

Athena inspires Nausicaa, princess of Phaecia, to wash her linens in the river with her maidens. She journeys there and washes, playing ball with her maidens while the linen dries, until a cast of the ball rolls by naked, shipwrecked, and starving Odysseus, waking him. Her maidens flee at Odysseus’ appearance, but Nausicaa stays.

Odysseus flatters her beauty, and she clothes him and feeds him. She asks him to follow her to the city, but wait in the grove of Athena before seeking out the king and queen, so that she does not gain the reputation as one cavorting in an unseemly fashion with strange men. Odysseus prays to Athena in her grove.

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Both illustrations of Princess Nausicaa here. I don’t think people give her enough credit. Of all the characters who assist Odysseus, her assist, though guided by Athena, is perhaps the biggest: she is the difference between him dying of exposure next to the river, and returning home, and she does this out of charity for a strange bedraggled naked guy whom she should rightly fear.

Really, more people should name their daughters after her than Helen of friggin’ Troy.