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Athena reaches the Phaeacian city of Scheria as Odysseus lays asleep on the shore, worn out by the violent storm he has weathered. She heads to the house of King Alcinous and enters the room of Nausicaa, Alcinous’ daughter, who is lying asleep. Athena appears to Nausicaa in a dream as her friend, the daughter of the shipman, Dymas. In this dream she urges Nausicaa to take the family’s washing to the washing pools the following day. Nausicaa is of a marriageable age and Athena says that it would be shameful for her to neglect her clothes. With this done, Athena speeds back to Olympus.
The next day Nausicaa goes to her father to request a mule and a wagon to help her take the clothes to the washing pools, as directed by Athena. She argues that her father has five sons, three of whom are still unmarried and are always demanding fresh clothes. Her father willingly grants her request. A wagon is readied and Nausicaa’s mother prepares a picnic hamper and a flask of olive oil to apply after bathing. Nausicaa is accompanied to the river by her maids, where they wash the clothes, bathe, and smooth their skin with oil. After, they play a game with a ball. When one of her maids misses her catch, the ball lands in one of the pools and the maids shout out.
The noise wakes Odysseus. He is confused. He doesn’t know where he is, nor does he know if the local people will be friendly. He creeps out of the bushes, covering his nakedness with a leafy branch. When the maids see him they panic and scatter, but Athena gives Nausicaa the resolve to remain still. Odysseus understands the delicacy of the situation. He needs help to get home and he does not wish to scare or offend anyone, so he decides not to clasp Nausicaa’s knee in a time-honoured mark of supplication. Instead, he speaks to her. He praises her beauty and compares her to Artemis, and says he is at her mercy. He explains he has been at sea for twenty days, from Ogygia. He begs for her compassion, asks for some covering and to be shown the way to town. He finishes by wishing Nausicaa a happy life and a good marriage.
Nausicaa makes a judgment that Odysseus is not wicked, but sees that he has been plagued by the gods, which he must endure. But she offers him the hospitality of her island and their help. She introduces herself as the daughter of King Alcinous. She calls to her maids to come back. She is confident that no one could come to their island to do harm since the Phaeacians are favoured by the gods. She instructs her maids to give Odysseus food and bathe him in the river, since he is filthy from his ordeal at sea. A cloak and shirt are laid out for him, as is the olive oil. Odysseus says he wishes to bathe away from their sight. It is possible he merely wishes to remain unthreatening to them. He bathes, rubs oil into his skin, and when he is finished Athena makes him appear more impressive and attractive to the eyes of others. When Nausicaa sees him, she decides that not all the gods can be against Odysseus, and she muses that she would like a husband like Odysseus.
The maids feed Odysseus, and when he is finished Nausicaa offers to guide him to her father’s palace. But she says that the Phaeacians are a seagoing people and they will be passing the docks where the sailors look after their ships. She fears that if she is seen with Odysseus there, rumours might start that will damage her reputation. Not only might he be presumed to be her husband-to-be, but she might then be criticised for choosing a foreign man. She describes how to find her father’s place, and asks Odysseus that he waits until they have a chance to return home. Then he can come into town independently and ask directions to see King Alcinous. She advises him that once he has been admitted to the palace, he should bypass her father and go straight to her mother, whom he will find spinning yarn. She says that if her mother supports Odysseus, he has a better chance of finally returning home.
They head towards the town and when they reach a grove Odysseus stops and Nausicaa and her maids go on without him. Odysseus says a pray to Athena as he waits, for love and mercy from the Phaeacians. Athena hears his prayer, but she does not appear before him. She is loathe to further upset Poseidon, whose son, Polyphemus, Odysseus blinded.
This map shows the island of Scheria in relation to Odysseus’ home, Ithaca, roughly 150 kilometres south east of Scheria. Scheria is Odysseus’ final stop before he reaches Ithaca, ten years after the conclusion of the Trojan War. While in the court of King Alcinous, Odysseus will tell the tale of his journeys, which include the most famous incidents from The Odyssey.
Odysseus is washed onto the shores of Scheria, a mythical island also known to us as Phaeacia or Faiakia – the land of the Phaeacians. The island is commonly identified as the modern island of Corfu, a little over 150 kilometres north of Ithaca. Odysseus’ landing is an important moment in The Odyssey because Scheria is his last landing place before he reaches his home in Ithaca. The most famous stories of The Odyssey are recounted to King Alcinous in the Phaeacian court in the books that follow.
The Phaeacians of Scheria are a hospitable people who will be instrumental in the success of Odysseus’ final voyage. Coincidentally, in the Phaeacians’ history, they are said to have come the island for similar reasons to Odysseus:
Odysseus, we recall from Book 1, has been detained for years since the Trojan war in punishment for the blinding of Polyphemus, a Cyclops who is the son of Poseidon:
Book 6 of The Odyssey provides us with a brief history of the establishment of the Phaeacian community on Scheria after they flee the threat of the Cyclops:
Nausithous, the king before Alcinous, is not to be confused with Odysseus’ son of the same name, conceived with Calypso while he was trapped at Ogygia. His brother was Nausinous. In another version of the story, Nausithous is the brother of Telegonus and their mother is Circe. In either case, Nausithous, Odysseus’ son, would be still a child at this point. Of King Nausithous, we are told, “his fate had long since forced him down to Death / and now Alcinous ruled” (The Odyssey Book 6, lines 13-14).
The names ‘Nausithous’, ‘Nausicaa’ and the English word ‘nautical’ bear such an obvious resemblance that I did some googling to find their common roots.
The name ‘Nausithous’ means ‘swift ship’ or ‘quick ship’. It is derived from the Greek words "naus" (ναῦς), meaning ‘ship’, and ‘thoos’ (θοός), meaning ‘swift’ or ‘quick’.
There are different explanations of the etymology of ‘Nausicaa’. A common translation of her name is ‘burner of ships’, from the Greek ναῦς, meaning ‘ship’, and κάω which means ‘to burn’. It is certainly an ominous interpretation which does not square with Nausicaa’s character, although her name has also been figuratively understood to mean that she is a disrupter, since she helps to introduce Odysseus into Phaeacian society. However, there are some claims that ‘burner of ships’ is merely a mistranslation, and that her name evokes positive connotations with ships and seafaring in general.
These etymologies, however, are unambiguously associated with ships and seafaring, and we can see this shared in the English word, ‘nautical’, which comes from the Latin ‘nauticus’, which drives from the Greek ‘nautikos’, meaning ‘seafaring’ or ‘naval’, and ultimately derives from the Greek word ‘nautēs’, meaning ‘sailor’, which is connected to the Greek word ‘naus’, meaning ‘ship’.
These names help to characterise the Phaeacian people whom we have been told live “far from the men who toil on this earth”. Nausicaa tells Odysseus,
Given Odysseus long and unlucky return from Troy, it seems the Phaeacians are just the kind of people from whom he needs help!
At the beginning of Book 6 Athena appears to Nausicaa in a dream and chides her for leaving the washing undone when she is of a marriageable age. Nausicaa’s willing compliance with Athena’s directive – to wash the household clothes – might put us in mind of a young girl with a traditional role to play. However, the narrative hints at depths to Nausicaa’s character, suggesting she is far more independent and bolder than our initial estimation of her. When she first asks her father for the mule and wagon, we are told in Fagles’ translation:
‘Warm hopes’ suggest an element of physical desire that has been awakened in Nausicaa, but ‘too shy’ seems to speak too directly of her character, also. Emily Wilson’s translation places a different emphasis on her shyness:
The emphasis here shifts towards her relationship with her father, itself. Later, she will tell Odysseus to “Go past him, grasp my mother’s knees”. These are small hints at a level of independence in Nausicaa’s character, which is supported by her father’s indulgent willingness to supply the mule and wagon, but more so by her mother’s elaborate efforts to organize the wagon, prepare a picnic and supply olive oil for their ablutions.
But our greatest hint at a more independent character comes in the comparisons made between Nausicaa and the goddess, Artemis. When he first encounters Nausicaa, Odysseus exclaims, “you’re Artemis to the life”, and makes a speech that emphasizes the girl’s beauty as he attempts to put her at ease.
But the comparison has already been made more broadly in the narrative, itself. Not only do Nausicaa and her maids wash and bathe, but they play a ball game in what Stephen Fry claims is the first instance of a ball game in Western literature. We get a sense of the independent nature of Nausicaa as they cast away their veils, in the physicality of Homer’s description:
Homer’s narrative emphasizes not her beauty, but Nausicaa’s leadership and physical action. Verbs like “threw”, “struck”, “led”, “striding” and “race” foreground the active role Nausicaa plays in this scene, and as an indication of character, foreshadows the active and instrumental role she later takes to introduce Odysseus to her father’s court. The reference to “Taygetus’ towering ridge” recalls the story of Taygetus, one of the Pleiad nymphs whom Zeus desired, but Artemis turned into a doe so she might escape him. Mount Taygetus was the location of a sanctuary founded by Artemis. The reference to Erymanthus and the boar is to the story of the Erymanthian boar from the stories of Heracles. It was Heracles’ fourth task to capture the Erymanthian boar.
Artemis is usually portrayed as a goddess who hunts, and is also associated with virginity. She famously requested to remain a virgin forever after her birth, which Zeus allowed (as always, there are variants to mythological stories, and some versions of her association with Orion has him as her lover). Homer finishes his comparison between Nausicaa and Artemis by emphasizing, “So Nausicaa shone among her maids, a virgin, still unwed.”
Jean Veber trained as a painter but was also a newspaper satirical caricaturist. His painting of the meeting between Ulysses (Odysseus) and Nausicaa, however, is an extremely faithful rendition of the scene where Nausicaa finds Odysseus naked. In the background we see Nausicaa’s maids fleeing while Nausicaa stands her ground, emboldened, we are told by Homer, by Athena. Odysseus attempts to appear modest and unthreatening by holding foliage against his naked body. The ball that Nausicaa and her maids have been playing with lies in the water at her feet where it landed after a maid missed her catch. Nausicaa is young with an air of innocence. Her translucent dress is revealing, but what we might expect of a young woman who has been washing clothes and bathing with her maids. The painting nicely captures the mood of the scene: Odysseus’ vulnerability, Nausicaa’s shock and surprise, and the maids fearful flight.
Pieter Lastman’s representation of the scene in which Nausica meets Odysseus is far more theatrical than Jean Veber’s. The scene appears staged and the figures’ gestures are wildly dramatic. Using a flat outcrop as his ‘stage’, Lastman’s props include the elaborate picnic in the foreground. The turbulent sky in the background is a backdrop which suggests the heightened emotions of the scene. Most of Nausicaa’s maidens are portrayed with their arms raised melodramatically, signifying their shock and rejection of Odysseus’ presence. Some also physically flee or turn from him. The emotional turbulence of the scene is heightened by the structural composition, which is triangular, with Nausicaa and Odysseus at its base, rising to its peak at the apex of the umbrella.
In terms of the details of the scene, we find that Lastman has included a horse rather than a mule, to draw the wagon. Washing baskets full of washing are also present in the scene, unlike Veber’s, which we might assume has them placed somewhere else. Lastman’s portrayal of Nausicaa has her dramatically gesturing with her hands, as do the other women. But she faces Odysseus squarely and looks directly at him. This is the confidence we might expect from the young woman whom Homer compares to Artemis. But Lastman’s Nausicaa appears much older than the character suggested by Homer. Her confident bare-breasted stance seems to derive from worldly experience. She projects anger and defiance rather than surprise, like Gandalf facing down the Balrog.
This painting by Frederick Leighton seems to catch Nausicaa at an unguarded moment. Her wistful glance and her raised hand, along with the white skirt and earthy tones of the painting suggest simplicity and innocence. Edgcumbe Staley, a 19th century British author, said of the painting: “She is painted full-length, leaning against a column of her father's palace at Ithaca and watching earnestly for the return of Odysseus.” This seems somewhat confused if accurate. Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, could be said to have waited in Ithaca for Odysseus’ return. Nausicaa was a Phaeacian princess living in Scheria and never went to Ithaca.
This red-figured amphora depicts the meeting of Odysseus and Nausicaa. Odysseus is portrayed on the far left, naked, and attempting to conceal himself. Between him and Nausicaa, second from the right, stands Athena. Athena does not physically appear to the characters in this scene in Homer’s poem. In the next book she will appear to Odysseus as a girl to lead him to Alcinous’ palace. But the image on the amphora captures the truth of the situation, that Athena is instrumental in much of what happens in The Odyssey.