Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/125

 

BOOK VII.

 

ARGUMENT.

Nausicaa reaches the city; but Ulysses on his way thither is met by Minerva, who shows him the house of Alcinous; arriving at which, he throws himself at the feet of Arete, the wife of Alcinous, and entreats her to send him home to his own country. Alcinous bids him rise, and gives him food to eat. But Arete, recognising his garments, inquires of him whence he got them: upon which he relates the history of his voyage and wreck, and his meeting with Nausicaa.

Thus then much-enduring divine Ulysses prayed there, but the strength of the mules carried the damsel to the city. But when she at length arrived at the illustrious house of her father, she then stood in the portico; and her brothers stood around her, like unto the immortals; and they loosed the mules from the chariot, and carried her garments within. But she herself went to her chamber; and for her an old woman of Epirus lighted a fire, the chambermaid Eurymedusa, whom formerly ships rowed on both sides brought from Epirus; but they chose her out as a prize for Alcinous, because he was ruler over all the Phæacians, and the people listened to him, as to a god; who nurtured white-armed Nausicaa in the palace; and who kindled her fire, and set out supper within. And then Ulysses started to go towards the city, and Minerva, having a friendly disposition towards Ulysses, shed much darkness around him, lest any one of the high-minded Phæacians, meeting him, should both reproach him with words, and inquire of him who he was. But when he was about to enter the lovely city, then the blue-eyed goddess Minerva met him, likened unto a virgin young woman bearing a pitcher; and she stood before him, and divine Ulysses inquired of her:

"O child, couldst thou not lead me to the house of the man Alcinous, who reigns amongst these men? For I am come hither a stranger from afar,^[1] having experienced labour, far off from a distant^[2] land: wherefore I know none of the men who possess this city and fields."^[3]

1. On the meaning of ταλαπείριος see my note on vi. 193.
2. The student must bear in mind that this epithet in Homer does not designate the Peloponnesus, but is simply equivalent to τῆς ἀλλοδαπῆς, καὶ μακρὰν ἀπεχούσης γῆς, as in Eustath., Apoll., Hesych., &c. See Buttm. Lexil. p. 154, and Loewe's note.
3. I consider myself justified in rendering ἔργα, fields, tilled lands, from