Iron within me, but of piteous mood.[[11]]
[10]. From Mr H. B. Cotterill’s translation of the Odyssey (Harrap & Co.).
[11]. From Professor J. W. Mackail’s translation of the Odyssey (John Murray).
Homer: Nausicaa
Nausicaa was the only daughter of Alcinous, King of Phaeacia. Young and beautiful, reared amid abundant wealth, the idol of parents and stalwart brothers, she is yet simple and sweet and quite unspoiled. Her father was lord over a rich seafaring folk; a kindly, generous, impetuous man. Her mother, Queen Arete, was a star among women; so wise and noble that the people saluted her as a god, and Alcinous worshipped her with absolute devotion. There is hardly anything in Homer more beautiful than the loving description that Nausicaa gives of her mother sitting beside Alcinous in the great hall like a benign goddess, ready to stretch a welcoming hand to the stranger and the suppliant. Even the great goddess Athena had words of praise for Arete, when she met Odysseus on the road coming up from the harbour:
“Her Alcinous took to wife,
And honoured her as living woman none
“Of wedded wives is honoured upon earth:
Such is the worship paid her (and her worth