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Nausicaa greets Odysseus after he has bathed:
When the maids had bathed him and anointed him with oil,
they put a lovely mantle and a tunic about him,
and he stepped from the bath and went to join the men at their wine
drinking. Then Nausikaa, with the gods' loveliness upon her,
stood beside the pillar that supported the roof with its joinery,
and gazed upon Odysseus with all her eys and admired him,
and spoke aloud to him and addressed him in winged words, saying:
"Goodbye, stranger, and think of me sometimes when you are
back at home, how I was the first you owed your life to."
Then resourceful Odysseus spoke in turn and answered her:
"Nausikaa, daughter of great-hearted Alkinoös,
even so may Zeus, high-thundering husband of Hera,
grant me to reach my house and see my day of homecoming.
So even when I am there I will pray to you, as to a goddess,
all the days of my life. For, maiden, my life was your gift." |
