r her with the maids. She does not want to be seen
coming into the town with him; and then follows another passage
which clearly shows that for all the talk she has made about getting
married she has no present intention of changing her name.

"'I am afraid,' she says, 'of the gossip and scandal which may be
set on foot about me behind my back, for there are some very ill-
natured people in the town, and some low fellow, if he met us, might
say, 'Who is this fine-looking stranger who is going about with
Nausicaa? Where did she pick him up? I suppose she is going to
marry him, or perhaps he is some shipwrecked sailor from foreign
parts; or has some god come down from heaven in answer to her
prayers, and she is going to live with him? It would be a good
thing if she would take herself off and find a husband somewhere
else, for she will not look at one of the many excellent young
Phaeacians who are in love with her'; and I could not complain, for
I should myself think ill of any girl whom I saw going about with
men unknown to her father and mother, and without having been
married to him in the face of all the world.'"

This passage could never have been written by the local bard, who
was in great measure dependent on Nausicaa's family; he would never
speak thus of his patron's daughter; either the passage is
Nausicaa's apology for herself, written by herself, or it is pure
invention, and this last, considering the close adherence to the
actual topography of Trapani on the Sicilian Coast, and a great deal
else that I cannot lay before you here, appears to me improbable.

Nausicaa then gives Ulysses directions by which he can find her
father's house. "When you have got past the courtyard," she says,
"go straight through the main hall, till you come to my mother's
room. You will find her sitting by the fire and spinning her purple
wool by firelight. She will make a lovely picture as she leans back
against a column with her maids ranged behind her. Facing her
stands my father's seat in which he sits and topes like an immortal
god. Never mind him, but go up to my mother and lay your hands upon
her knees, if you would be forwarded on your homeward voyage." From
which I conclude that Arete ruled Alcinous, and Nausicaa ruled
Arete.

Ulysses follows his instructions aided by Minerva, who makes him
invisible as he passes through the town and through the crowds of
Phaeacian guests who are feasting in the king's palace.