Book 7 - The palace of Alcinous

• Odysseus M epithet?

  Much-enduring Odysseus
• Athene, in her concern for


  His welfare, enveloped him in a thick mist
• The bright-eyed goddess herself


  Came to meet him, disguised as a young girl carrying a pitcher
• ‘The people here have little


  Affection for strangers, and do not welcome visitors with open arms’ [ Athene ]
• The formidable goddess Athene


  of the lovely hair prevented it, shedding a magic mist round her favourite in her concern for his safety
• ‘Nausithous, the first of the


  Line, was the son of Poseidon’ [ Athene ]
• ‘Such is the extraordinary and


  heartfelt devotion which she has enjoyed in the past and still enjoys’ [ Athene ]
• ‘The people who look on her


  like a goddess, and greet her when she walks through the town’ [ Athene ]
• ‘For she is also

  a wise woman’ [ Athene ]
• ‘She settles even


  men’s disputes’ [ Athene ]
• His heart was filled with 


  varied emotions and he kept on stopping before he reached the bronze threshold
• The interior of the well-built


  mansion was guarded by golden doors hung on posts of silver
• On either side stood gold


  and silver dogs, which Hephaestus had made with consummate skill
• The house keeps

  fifty maids employed
• Their fruit never fails


  nor runs short, winter and summer alike
• Such were the glorious


  gifts the gods had bestowed on Alcinous’ home
• When he had admired it to his heart’s


  content he stepped briskly over the threshold and entered the palace
• The much-enduring good Odysseus walked straight


  Up the hall, wrapped in the mist that Athene shed about him, till he reached Arete and King Alcinous and threw his arms around Arete’s knees
• They stared in Odysseus in amazement

  while he made his petition
• ‘I come a suppliant to your


  husband, to you and to your guests’ [ Odysseus ]
• He took that wise and subtle Odysseus by the


  Hand, raised him from the hearth and seated him on a tall polished chair, from which he moved the friendly Laodamas, his favourite son
• ‘We may now make a

  drink-offering to Zeus the Thunderer, patron of suppliants, who deserves respect’ [ Alcinous ]
• ‘We will safeguard him on


  the way from any further accident till he sets foot on his own land’ [ Alcinous ]
• ‘I have neither the look nor

  the stature of the immortal gods who live in heaven‘ [ Odysseus ]
• They all applauded his speech and 


  agreed that the stranger should be escorted home, for he had talked good sense
• ’I myself will question you


  and ask you this first. Who are you?’ [ Arete ]
• ‘It would be wearisome to


  tell you all my troubles from the first to last, for the gods have sent me so many’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I was alone, for with one of


  his blinding bolts Zeus had smashed my good ship to pieces’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘The princess herself was with them,


  looking like a goddess. I asked for help. And she proved what good sense she has’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘We men are 


  naturally suspicious’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I wish that a man like you,


  like-minded with myself, could have my daughter and remain here as my son-in-law’ [ Alcinous ]
• ‘O Father Zeus, grand that Alcinous may


  accomplish all that he has promised; then his fame would never die anywhere on the fruitful Earth’ [ Odysseus ]