o neighbours near, covers
up a burning brand among the ashes, so that it may last all night, and
preserve the seed of fire; so lay Odysseus, nursing the spark of life,
in his deep bed of leaves. And soon he forgot all his troubles in a
deep and dreamless sleep.

Odysseus among the Phaeacians

I

The land on which Odysseus had thus been cast like a piece of broken
wreckage was called Phaeacia, and derived its name from the Phaeacians,
a race of famous mariners, who had settled there some fifty years
before, having been driven from their former seat by the Cyclopes, a
savage tribe, who dwelt on their borders. The Phaeacians were an
unwarlike people, and being in no condition to resist the fierce
assaults of these lawless neighbours, they abandoned their homes and
built a new city on a little peninsula, connected with the mainland by
a narrow isthmus. Defended by strong walls they were now safe against
all attacks, and they soon grew rich and prosperous in the exercise of
a thriving trade.

At this time the king of the Phaeacians was Alcinous, who had a fair
daughter, named Nausicaae. On the night when Odysseus lay couched in
his bed of leaves Nausicaae was sleeping in her bower, and with her
were two handmaids, whose beds were set on either side of the door.
And in a dream she seemed to hear one of her girlish friends, the
daughter of a neighbouring house, speaking to her thus: "Nausicaae, why
art thou grown so careless as to suffer all the raiment in thy
father's house to remain unwashen, when thy bridal day is so near?
Wouldst thou be wedded in soiled attire, and have all thy friends clad
unseemly, to put thee to shame? These are a woman's cares, by which
she wins a good report among men, and gladdens her mother's heart.
Arise, therefore, at break of day, and beg thy father to let harness
the mules to the wain, that thou mayest take the linen to the place of
washing, far away by the river's side. I will go with thee, and help
thee in the work."

So dreamed Nausicaae, and so spake the vision. But the voice which
seemed the voice of her friend came from no mortal lips; it was Athene
herself who had visited the maiden's bower, in her care for Odysseus,
that he might get safe conduct to the city of the Phaeacians. And when
she had done her errand the goddess went back to Olympus, where is the
steadfast, everlasting seat of the blessed gods, not shaken of any
wind, nor wet with rain, nor chilled by snow, but s