Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Athena sent Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous and Arete, to the river with laundry; there she and her maids found the salt-crusted Odysseus. He begged clothing and guidance with careful courtesy; she gave both and directed him to follow to her mother’s knees in the palace, warning him to avoid gossip on the road. Invisible Athena shrouded him until he clasped Arete; Alcinous received him as guest, promising conveyance home, and briefly hoped the stranger might marry Nausicaa—then withdrew the thought when Odysseus spoke of return. At the games Odysseus, stung by Euryalus’s taunt, hurled the discus beyond all marks. Demodocus sang of Ares and Aphrodite caught in Hephaestus’s net, then of the wooden horse; Odysseus wept into his cloak until Alcinous asked his name and story. Odysseus declared himself and began the tale of Cicones, Lotus-eaters, Cyclops, and the rest (Books 9–12). The Phaeacians loaded gifts and, in Book 13, rowed him sleeping to Ithaca—Poseidon’s later petrification of their ship already noted in the return entry (052). Scheria is thus the last foreign hospitality: athletic pride, bardic memory of Troy, and the ship that closes the wandering.