The Odyssey Quotes

"Show me the way to town, give me a rag for cover,
just some cloth, some wrapper you carried with you here.
And may the good gods give you all your heart desires:
husband, and house, and lasting harmony too.
No finer, greater gift in the world than that…
when man and woman possess their home, two minds,
two hearts that work as one. Despair to their enemies,
a joy to all their friends. Their own best claim to glory."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 196-203. Stripped of his pride and dignity, a naked shipwrecked Odysseus begs Phaeacian princess Nausicaa for help. He pleads for rags to cover him and assistance to get to the town. He prays that the gods will grant her heart’s desires and an ideal marriage. Here Odysseus appears to be flattering and even flirting with her.

"But here’s an unlucky wanderer strayed our way
and we must tend him well. Every stranger and beggar
comes from Zeus, and whatever scrap we give him
he’ll be glad to get. So, quick, my girls,
give our newfound friend some food and drink
and bathe the man in the river."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 226-231. Nausicaa asks her handmaids to give the wanderer Odysseus food and drink and to bathe him in the river. By doing this she is honoring the ancient Greek code of hospitality to strangers and also the god of hospitality Zeus. She shows courage by coming to the aid of a complete stranger, who happens to be male and naked. The princess may also be developing an attraction to Odysseus.

Then thoughtful Odysseus reassured the handmaids,
"Stand where you are, dear girls, a good way off,
so I can rinse the brine from my shoulders now
and rub myself with oil…
how long it’s been since oil touched my skin!
But I won’t bathe in front of you. I would be embarrassed –
stark naked before young girls with lovely braids."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, 240-246. When Odysseus bathes himself in the river, he engages in a little teasing and flattery of the young Phaeacian women. He suggests they stand back so they won’t view his nakedness.

Zeus’s daughter Athena made him taller to all eyes,
his build more massive now, and down from his brow
she ran his curls like thick hyacinth clusters
full of blooms. As a master craftsman washes
gold over beaten silver – a man the god of fire
and Queen Athena trained in every fine technique –
and finishes off his latest effort, handsome work,
so she lavished splendor over his head and shoulders now.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 256-260. Athena gives the shipwrecked Odysseus a complete makeover to make him more desirable to Princess Nausicaa after he finds him washed onto the shore. The goddess transforms his appearance, so that he becomes taller and more beautiful and has a "massive" build. A Homeric simile likens what she does to a master smith pouring gold over silver to make something beautiful even more splendid.

"The gods of Olympus can’t be all against this man
who’s come to mingle among our noble people.
At first he seemed appalling, I must say –
now he seems like a god who rules the skies up there!
Ah, if only a man like that were called my husband,
lived right here, pleased to stay forever…
Enough.
Give the stranger food and drink, my girls."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 266-272. After Athena transforms Odysseus’ appearance, making him more handsome and attractive, the improvement is not lost on Nausicaa. Gazing in wonder at Odysseus, she wishes that she could marry a man like Odysseus. Nausicas shows great kindness to the stranger, asking her attendants to provide him with food and drink.

"But I shrink from all our sea-dogs’ nasty gossip.
Some old salt might mock us behind our backs –
we have our share of insolent types in town
and one of the coarser sort, spying us, might say,
‘Now who’s that tall, handsome stranger Nausicaa has in tow?
Where’d she light on him? Her husband-to-be, just wait!’"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 299-304. Nausicaa wonders what some of the gossips would say about her walking into town together with Odysseus. They might mistake the stranger for her husband-to-be, she suggests. To avoid scandal, she decides that she and her maids will walk to her father’s palace ahead of him.

Pallas Athena, harboring kindness for the hero,
drifted a heavy mist around him, shielding him
from any swaggering islander who’d cross his path
provoke him with taunts and search out who he was.
Instead, as he was about to enter the welcome city,
the bright-eyed goddess herself came up to greet him there,
for all the world like a young girl, holding a pitcher,
standing face-to-face with the visitor.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 16-23. While Odysseus is on his way to the palace of Alcinous, Athena disguises him with a magical mist to keep him safe from the Phaeacians. As he is about to enter the city, the goddess appears before him in the form of a girl carrying a pitcher, to help him further.

"Little girl, now wouldn’t you be my guide
to the palace of the one they call Alcinous?
The king who rules the people of these parts.
I am a stranger, you see, weighed down with troubles,
come this way from a distant, far-off shore.
So I know no one here, none at all
in your city and the farmlands round about."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 24-29. Odysseus asks a young girl to be his guide to the palace of King Alcinous. The girl is Athena in disguise, Odysseus’ divine assistant on his journey home to Ithaca.

"I’ll show you the very palace that you’re after –
the king lives right beside my noble father.
Come, quietly too, and I will lead the way.
Now not a glance at anyone, not a question.
The men here never suffer strangers gladly,
have no love for hosting a man from foreign lands."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 32-37. Athena, in the disguise of a young girl, offers to show Odysseus to Alcinous’ palace. She warns him not to expect any great welcome, for the inhospitable Phaeacians are somewhat xenophobic and suspicious of strangers.

"Arete, she is called, and earns the name:
she answers all our prayers. She comes, in fact,
from the same stock that bred our King Alcinous.
First came Nausithous, son of the earthquake god
Poseidon and Periboea, the lovely, matchless beauty,
the youngest daughter of iron-willed Eurymedon."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 62-67. Athena tells Odysseus that Queen Arete will be the first person he meets in the palace halls. Arete will play an important role in Odysseus’ quest to find his way home after twenty years.

"They gaze on her as a god,
saluting her warmly on her walks through town.
She lacks nothing in good sense and judgment –
she can dissolve quarrels, even among men,
whoever wins her sympathies.
If only our queen will take you to her heart,
then there’s hope that you will see your loved ones,
reach your high-roofed house, your native land at last."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 82-89. Athena gives Odysseus some important advice about Arete, queen of the Phaeacians. Arete has the loyalty of all the people, she reveals, as she uses a simile to compare her to a god. If Odysseus can win the queen to his side, then he has hopes of reaching his homeland and family, she tells him.

A radiance strong as the moon or rising sun came flooding
through the high-roofed halls of generous King Alcinous.
Walls plated in bronze, crowned with a circling frieze
glazed as blue as lapis, ran to left and right
from outer gates to the deepest court recess,
and solid golden doors enclosed the palace.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 98-103. Homer describes the opulence and riches at the splendid palace of King Alcinous. A simile compares the radiance flooding through the halls to that of the moon or rising sun.

Outside the courtyard, fronting the high gates,
a magnificent orchard stretches four acres deep
with a strong fence running round it side-to-side.
Here luxuriant trees are always in their prime,
pomegranates and pears, and apples glowing red,
succulent figs and olives swelling sleek and dark.
And the yield of all these trees will never flag or die.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 129-135. Here the magnficent gardens of King Alcinous are described. They are befitting a Phaeacian leader who has such a reputation for greatness that he is said to be "obeyed like a god."

"Queen,
Arete, daughter of godlike King Rhexenor!
Here after many trials I come to beg for mercy,
your husband’s, yours, and all these feasters’ here.
May the gods endow them with fortune all their lives,
may each hand down to his sons the riches in his house
and the pride of place the realm has granted him.
But as for myself, grant me a rapid convoy home
to my own native land. How far away I’ve been
from all my loved ones – how long I have suffered!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 172-181. Odysseus flings his arm around Arete’s knees and begs the queen to grant him passage to his homeland and family. He prays for the gods to endow the Phaeacian people with good fortune all their lives.

"This is no way, Alcinous. How indecent, look,
our guest on the ground, in the ashes by the fire!
Your people are holding back, waiting for your signal.
Come, raise him up and seat the stranger now,
in a silver-studded chair,
and tell the heralds to mix more wine for all
so we can pour out cups to Zeus who loves the lightning."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 189-195. An elder of the Phaeacians, Echeneus, calls on Alcinous to treat their guest Odysseus well. He asks that he be seated on one of their best chairs and for more wine to be poured out to honor the god of hospitality Zeus.

Hearing that,
Alcinous, poised in all his majesty, took the hand
of the seasoned, worldly-wise Odysseus, raised him up
from the hearth and sat him down in a burnished chair,
displacing his own son, the courtly Lord Laodamas
who had sat beside him, the son he loved the most.
A maid brought water soon in a graceful golden pitcher
and over a silver basin tipped it out
so the guest might rinse his hands,
then pulled a gleaming table to his side.
A staid housekeeper brought on bread to serve him,
appetizers aplenty too, lavish with her bounty.
As long-suffering great Odysseus ate and drank.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 198-210. Odysseus is given the royal treatment by Alcinous, who give him pride of place in his son Laodamas’ seat. A maid provides water so that Odysseus can wash his hands, while a housekeeper serves him food and drink on a shining table.

"But at dawn we call the elders in to full assembly,
host our guest in the palace, sacrifice to the gods
and then we turn our minds to his passage home,
so under our convoy our new friend can travel back
to his own land – no toil, no troubles – soon,
rejoicing, even if his home’s a world away."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 224-229. Alcinous makes an important announcement to the lords and captains of Phaeacia. He tells his people that they will meet first thing in the morning to help Odysseus get back to his homeland. Alcinous shows himself to be a very generous host, even before he knows Odysseus’ identity.

"There in the future he must suffer all that Fate
and the overbearing Spinners spun out on his life line
the very day his mother gave him birth."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 232-234. Alcinous, speaking about Odysseus, says that what happens in a person’s life is pre-determined and cannot be changed. In a metaphor, he compares the Fates to weavers and Odysseus’ life to a thread that they finished spinning the day he was born. The Greek Fates, or Moirai, were three ancient weaving goddesses who spun out the thread of life for mortals at their birth.

"The belly’s a shameless dog, there’s nothing worse.
Always insisting, pressing, it never lets us forget –
destroyed as I am, my heart racked with sadness,
sick with anguish, still it keeps demanding,
‘Eat, drink!’ It blots out all the memory
of my pain, commanding, ‘Fill me up!’"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 251-256. After telling King Alcinous that he is not a god and just a mortal man, Odysseus is hungry and anxious to finish dinner. In an extended metaphor he compares the stomach to a dog that keeps demanding its fill of food and drink.

"the gods cast me up on Ogygia, Calypso’s island,
home of the dangerous nymph with glossy braids,
and the goddess took me in in all her kindness,
welcomed me warmly, cherished me, even vowed
to make me immortal, ageless, all my days –
but she never won the heart inside me, never."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 292-297. Odysseus’ unshakable loyalty to his homeland is spelled out when he tells Arete the story of his time on Calypso’s island. Despite spending seven years on Ogygia, Calypso never won his heart, it remained in Ithaca. She even tempted him with the prize of immortality if he would be her husband, but he resisted that.

"Your majesty," diplomatic Odysseus answered,
don’t find fault with a flawless daughter now,
not for my sake, please.
She urged me herself to follow with her maids.
I chose not to, fearing embarrassment in fact –
what if you took offense, seeing us both together?
Suspicious we are, we men who walk the earth."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 346-350. When Alcinous criticizes his daughter for failing to escort her guest Odysseus to the palace and letting him walk in alone, Odysseus lies. But his deception is a commendable one. He doesn’t reveal that it was Nausicaa herself told him not to accompany her in case it would cause scandal. Instead he takes the blame by saying that he told her not to, for fear it would embarrass and offend the king.
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