Then Athena left Scheria and went
away over the sea. She went to Marathon and to the spacious streets
of Athens, where she entered the abode of Erechtheus; but Odysseus
went on to the house of Alkinoos, and he pondered much as he paused a
while before reaching the threshold of bronze, for the splendor of
the palace was like that of the sun or moon. The walls on either side
were of bronze from end to end, and the cornice was of blue enamel.
The doors were gold, and hung on pillars of silver that rose from a
floor of bronze, while the lintel was silver and the hook of the door
was of gold.
On either side there stood gold
and silver mastiffs which Hephaistos, with his consummate skill, had
fashioned expressly to keep watch over the palace of king Alkinoos;
so they were immortal and could never grow old. Seats were ranged all
along the wall, here and there from one end to the other, with
coverings of fine woven work which the women of the house had made.
Here the chief persons of the Phaeacians used to sit and eat and
drink, for there was abundance at all seasons; and there were golden
figures of young men with lighted torches in their hands, raised on
pedestals, to give light by night to those who were at table. There
are fifty maid servants in the house, some of whom are always
grinding rich yellow grain at the mill, while others work at the
loom, or sit and spin, and their shuttles go, backwards and forwards
like the fluttering of aspen leaves, while the linen is so closely
woven that it will turn oil. As the Phaeacians are the best sailors
in the world, so their women excel all others in weaving, for Athena
has taught them all manner of useful arts, and they are very
intelligent.
Outside the gate of the outer
court there is a large garden of about four acres with a wall all
round it. It is full of beautiful trees - pears, pomegranates, and
the most delicious apples. There are luscious figs also, and olives
in full growth. The fruits never rot nor fail all the year round,
neither winter nor summer, for the air is so soft that a new crop
ripens before the old has dropped. Pear grows on pear, apple on
apple, and fig on fig, and so also with the grapes, for there is an
excellent vineyard: on the level ground of a part of this, the grapes
are being made into raisins; in another part they are being gathered;
some are being trodden in the wine tubs, others further on have shed
their blossom and are beginning to show fruit, others again are just
changing color. In the furthest part of the ground there are
beautifully arranged beds of flowers that are in bloom all the year
round. Two streams go through it, the one turned in ducts throughout
the whole garden, while the other is carried under the ground of the
outer court to the house itself, and the town's people draw
water from it. Such, then, were the splendors with which the gods had
endowed the house of king Alkinoos.
So here Odysseus stood for a
while and looked about him, but when he had looked long enough he
crossed the threshold and went within the precincts of the house.
There he found all the chief people among the Phaeacians making their
drink-offerings to Hermes, which they always did the last thing
before going away for the night. He went straight through the court,
still hidden by the cloak of darkness in which Athena had enveloped
him, till he reached Arete and King Alkinoos; then he laid his hands
upon the knees of the queen, and at that moment the miraculous
darkness fell away from him and he became visible. Every one was
speechless with surprise at seeing a man there, but Odysseus began at
once with his petition.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.