Phaeaces
（
Φαίακες, Φαίηκες). A fabulous people in Homer, to whom
Odysseus came in his wanderings (
Od. vi.-viii.). They were as like to the gods as the Giants and
Cyclopes, seeing them face to face. Originally settled in Hyperia, they were compelled, by the
violence of their neighbours, the Cyclopes, to migrate, under their king Nausithoüs,
son of Poseidon and Periboea, daughter of Eurymedon, the last king of the Giants, to the happy
island of Scheria, where they built a city. On the arrival of Odysseus, their ruler was
Alcinoüs, the son of Nausithoüs; his wife was Areté, his
brother's daughter, and besides many sons he was the father of the fair Nausicaa, Odysseus's
preserver. Far from the turmoil of the world, the Phaeaces are described as leading a life of
undisturbed happiness, in the enjoyment of the goods wherewith they are richly blessed; above
all, Alcinoüs, who had the fairest of orchards and a most beautiful palace. Their
business was solely with the sea, with shipping, and the provision of all that belongs to it.
Their ships were of wondrous sort. Without steersman or rudder, divining of themselves the
wishes and thoughts of all men, and knowing all lands, they traversed the sea swift as a bird
or a thought, wrapped in mist and darkness, yet never suffered wreck or loss. When the ship,
that brought the sleeping Odysseus in one night to Thrace, returned, Poseidon, of whose
envious malice a prophecy had long ago bidden them beware, changed it to a rock in sight of
harbour, and the Phaeaces were in fear that the rest of the saying would come true, and
mountains rise up all round their city. Though it is obvious that the Phaeaces and their
abodes, Hyperia and Scheria, are purely mythical, the kingdom of Alcinoüs was early
identified as Corcyra (Corfu). He had a shrine there, and the harbour was named after him.
Near the island was also shown the petrified ship. Hence the later Argonautic legends made
even Iason and Medea touch at Corcyra on their flight from Aeëtes, and, like
Odysseus, find protection and help from Alcinoüs. (See
Argonautae.) The Phaeacian episode of the
Odyssey has been
edited separately by Prof. A. C. Merriam in his
Phaeacians of Homer (New
York, 1880).
