Upon the dancing-floor. But far beyond
All others is that man most fortunate,
“Who loading you with many a precious thing
May woo you and to share his home may bring.“[[12]]
Cunning Odysseus’s words are winged with a deeper significance than he knows, for all his subtlety and tact. Does Nausicaa recall her dream, just at this point? We cannot tell. But when he goes on to relate at length about the dreadful voyage on the raft through the vengeful storms of Poseidon, she pities and longs to help him. She has gauged him shrewdly, too. This eloquent stranger, with his air of frank deference, is no rogue nor fool; but whoever and whatever he may be, he is a suppliant whom it is the will of Zeus to succour. So she speaks cheerily to him, to allay his anxiety, telling him that he is in the land of a friendly people, whose king, Alcinous, is her father. She will herself guide him to the palace and see that he is cared for. Then she turns to reproach the silly fear of her maids:
“Stand still, my women! Why so timorous
At a man’s face? You do not surely think
This man is here with ill intent to us?
“That living mortal is not, nor shall be,
Who to Phaeacia bearing enmity