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Odyssey
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General SummaryThe Iliad and the Odyssey are not simply the noblest examples of epic poetry which have come down to us from antiquity. To the historian these two poems are the chief source of information for the life and culture of the early Greeks before the dawn of history. It is true that the poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey professes to relate events that in his own time were already ancient; events which we may well believe never happened. But if the stories he has to tell are pure fictions, the manners and customs he describes are not imaginary. The civilization pictured by the poet is mainly that with which he is himself familiar. Homer paints the past in the colors of his own day.
Historical SummaryThe Iliad ends with the funeral rites of Hector, who perished in the tenth year of the siege of Troy. After the capture of that city all the Greek chieftains who survived the conflict returned to their homes — all save Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Him the god Poseidon doomed to wander far and wide over the sea to strange lands. His many adventures form the subject of the Odyssey. When the poem begins, Odysseus was still far from his rocky island of Ithaca where more than a hundred suitors courted his wife Penelope. Lawless and violent men they were, who feasted all day in the house of Odysseus and wasted his substance. Meantime the hero suffered shipwreck and was carried by the waves to the isle of Scheria where dwelt the Phæacians, a people akin to the gods. There on the shore he lay asleep, the steadfast, goodly Odysseus, foredone with toil and drowsiness. But the goddess Athena, with intent to aid him, appeared in a dream to Nausicaa, the lovely daughter of the Phæacian king, and bade her rise and wash the garments for her wedding day.
15. Nausicaa1
Anon came the throned dawn, and awakened Nausicaa of the fair robes, who straightway marveled on the dream, and went through the halls to tell her parents, her father dear and her mother. And she found them within, her mother sitting by the hearth with the women her handmaids, spinning yarn of sea-purple stain, but her father she met as he was going forth to the renowned kings in their council, whither the noble Phæacians called him. Standing close by her dear father she spake, saying: "Father, dear, couldst thou not lend me a high wagon with strong wheels, that I may take the goodly raiment to the river to wash, so much as I have lying soiled? Yea and it is seemly that thou thyself, when thou art with the princes in council, shouldest have fresh raiment to wear. Also, there are five dear sons of thine in the halls, two married, but three are lusty bachelors, and these are always eager for new-washen garments wherein to go to the dances. For all these things have I taken thought." This she said because she was ashamed to speak of glad marriage to her father; but he saw all and answered, saying: "Neither the mules nor aught else do I grudge thee, my child. Go thy ways, and the servants shall
get thee ready a high wagon with good wheels, and fitted with an upper frame."
Therewith he called to his men, and they gave ear, and without the palace they made ready the smooth-running mule-wain, and led the mules beneath the yoke, and harnessed them under the car, while the maiden brought forth from her bower the shining raiment. This she stored in the polished car, and her mother filled a basket with all manner of food to the heart’s desire, dainties too, she set therein, and she poured wine into a goat-skin bottle, while Nausicaa climbed into the wain. And her mother gave her soft olive oil also in a golden cruse, that she and her maidens might anoint themselves after the bath. . . .
Now when they were come to the beautiful stream of the river, where truly were the unfailing cisterns, and bright water welled up free from beneath, and flowed past, enough to wash the foulest garments clean, there the girls unharnessed the mules from under the chariot. Then they turned them loose and drove them along the banks of the eddying river to graze on the honey-sweet clover. Next they took the garments from the wain, in their hands, and bore them to the black water, and briskly trod them down in the trenches, in busy rivalry. Now when they had washed and cleansed all the stains, they spread all out in order along the shore of the deep, even where the sea, in beating on the coast, washed the pebbles clean. Then having bathed and anointed themselves well with olive oil, they took their mid-day meal on the river’s banks, waiting till the clothes should dry in the brightness of the sun. Anon, when they were satisfied with food, the maidens and the princess, they fell to playing at ball, casting away their tires, and among them Nausicaa of the white arms began the song.
1 , vi, 46–101.
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Chicago: "Nausicaa," Odyssey in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 39–40. Original Sources, accessed December 4, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XDWN4Z4VAJVYWU6.
MLA: . "Nausicaa." Odyssey, Vol. vi, in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, pp. 39–40. Original Sources. 4 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XDWN4Z4VAJVYWU6.
Harvard: , 'Nausicaa' in Odyssey. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.39–40. Original Sources, retrieved 4 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XDWN4Z4VAJVYWU6.
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