Now when the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Alkinoos and Odysseus both rose, and
Alkinoos led the way to the Phaeacian place of assembly, which was
near the ships. When they got there they sat down side by side on a
seat of polished stone, while Athena took the form of one of
Alkinoos’ servants, and went round the town in order to contrive
nostos for great-hearted Odysseus. She went up to the
citizens, man by man, and said, "Aldermen and town councilors of the
Phaeacians, come to the assembly all of you and listen to the
stranger who has just come off a long voyage to the house of King
Alkinoos; he looks like an immortal god."
With these words she made them all
want to come, and they flocked to the assembly till seats and
standing room were alike crowded. Every one was struck with the
appearance of Odysseus, for Athena had beautified
[kharis] him about the head and shoulders, making him
look taller and stouter than he really was, that he might impress the
Phaeacians favorably as being a very remarkable man, and might come
off well in the many trials [athlos] of skill to which
they would challenge him. Then, when they were got together, Alkinoos
spoke:
"Hear me," said he, "aldermen and
town councilors of the Phaeacians, that I may speak even as I am
minded. This stranger, whoever he may be, has found his way to my
house from somewhere or other either East or West. He wants an escort
and wishes to have the matter settled. Let us then get one ready for
him, as we have done for others before him; indeed, no one who ever
yet came to my house has been able to complain of me for not speeding
on his way soon enough. Let us draw a ship into the sea - one that
has never yet made a voyage - and man her with two and fifty of our
choicest [krînô] young sailors in the
dêmos. Then when you have made fast your oars each by
his own seat, leave the ship and come to my house to prepare a feast.
I will provide you with everything. I am giving these instructions to
the young men who will form the crew, for as regards you aldermen and
town councilors, you will join me in entertaining our guest in the
cloisters. I can take no excuses, and we will have Demodokos to sing
to us; for there is no bard like him whatever he may choose to sing
about."
Alkinoos then led the way, and the
others followed after, while a servant went to fetch Demodokos. The
fifty-two picked [krînô] oarsmen went to
the sea shore as they had been told, and when they got there they
drew the ship into the water, got her mast and sails inside her,
bound the oars to the thole-pins with twisted thongs of leather, all
in due course, and spread the white sails aloft. They moored the
vessel a little way out from land, and then came on shore and went to
the house of King Alkinoos. The outhouses, yards, and all the
precincts were filled with crowds of men in great multitudes both old
and young; and Alkinoos killed them a dozen sheep, eight full grown
pigs, and two oxen. These they skinned and dressed so as to provide a
magnificent banquet.
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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.