Who He Is
Alcinous is the king of the Phaeacians, in Scheria, grandson of Poseidon through his father Nausithous, husband of Arete and father of Nausicaa. He rules a people of seafarers who escort strangers without harm, in a palace of bronze and gold surrounded by an orchard without seasons. He welcomes Odysseus before knowing who he is, and it is to him that Odysseus tells the account of his adventures. He keeps hospitality to the letter, and the poem shows the price that it exacts from the city.
Trajectory
In Book VI, the poem presents him through his father: Nausithous brought the Phaeacians out of Hyperia, where they were plundered by the Cyclopes, and led them to Scheria. Alcinous now reigns, and grants the cart to Nausicaa, understanding what she does not say.
In Book VII, the palace is described as gleaming like the sun or the moon. Seeing the guest sitting in the ashes, he does not react at once, until the old man Echeneus reminds him of the rule. Then he raises Odysseus, seats him on a throne, and orders a libation to Zeus. He considers the hypothesis that the guest is a god, and Odysseus denies it. He promises an escort for the next day, and says he would wish that the guest, being who he is and thinking as he does, were his son-in-law and stayed willingly, adding that no one will hold him against his will.
πολλὰ δέ οἱ κῆρ / ὥρμαινʼ ἱσταμένῳ, πρὶν χάλκεον οὐδὸν ἱκέσθαι. / ὥς τε γὰρ ἠελίου αἴγλη πέλεν ἠὲ σελήνης / δῶμα καθʼ ὑψερεφὲς μεγαλήτορος Ἀλκινόοιο(7.82-85), many things stirred in his heart as he stood, before he reached the bronze threshold. For there was a gleam like that of the sun or the moon through the high-roofed house of great-hearted Alcinous.
τάων οὔ ποτε καρπὸς ἀπόλλυται οὐδʼ ἀπολείπει / χείματος οὐδὲ θέρευς, ἐπετήσιος· ἀλλὰ μάλʼ αἰεὶ / Ζεφυρίη πνείουσα τὰ μὲν φύει, ἄλλα δὲ πέσσει. / ὄγχνη ἐπʼ ὄγχνῃ γηράσκει, μῆλον δʼ ἐπὶ μήλῳ, / αὐτὰρ ἐπὶ σταφυλῇ σταφυλή, σῦκον δʼ ἐπὶ σύκῳ(7.117-121), the fruit of these never perishes or fails, neither in winter nor in summer, all year round; but always the West Wind, blowing, brings some to birth and ripens others. Pear grows old upon pear, apple upon apple, grape upon grape, fig upon fig.
Ἀλκίνοʼ, οὐ μέν τοι τόδε κάλλιον, οὐδὲ ἔοικε, / ξεῖνον μὲν χαμαὶ ἧσθαι ἐπʼ ἐσχάρῃ ἐν κονίῃσιν, / οἵδε δὲ σὸν μῦθον ποτιδέγμενοι ἰσχανόωνται(7.159-161), Alcinous, this is neither beautiful nor fitting, that a stranger should sit on the ground by the hearth in the ashes; these men wait for your word and hold themselves back.
εἰ δέ τις ἀθανάτων γε κατʼ οὐρανοῦ εἰλήλουθεν, / ἄλλο τι δὴ τόδʼ ἔπειτα θεοὶ περιμηχανόωνται(7.199-200), but if one of the immortals has come down from heaven, then the gods are devising something else.
αἲ γάρ, Ζεῦ τε πάτερ καὶ Ἀθηναίη καὶ Ἄπολλον, / τοῖος ἐὼν οἷός ἐσσι, τά τε φρονέων ἅ τʼ ἐγώ περ, / παῖδά τʼ ἐμὴν ἐχέμεν καὶ ἐμὸς γαμβρὸς καλέεσθαι / αὖθι μένων· οἶκον δέ κʼ ἐγὼ καὶ κτήματα δοίην, / εἴ κʼ ἐθέλων γε μένοις· ἀέκοντα δέ σʼ οὔ τις ἐρύξει / Φαιήκων· μὴ τοῦτο φίλον Διὶ πατρὶ γένοιτο(7.311-316), oh, Father Zeus, and Athena, and Apollo! If only you were such as you are, thinking what I think, to have my daughter and be called my son-in-law, staying here; I would give you a house and goods, if you stayed willingly; but no one of the Phaeacians will hold you against your will. May this not be dear to Father Zeus.
In Book VIII, he calls the assembly, has a new ship launched with fifty-two young men, gathers the kings, and summons Demodocus. He alone notices Odysseus's weeping, and proposes going out to the games. He is the only one who answers the guest's challenge after the discus and reminds them what the Phaeacians are good at. He makes amends for Euryalus's insult with gifts, hands a golden cup to the guest, and, in the third song, demands his name. No one is altogether without a name, he says, and he recounts his father's prophecy, that Poseidon is indignant at the escorts and one day will cover the city with a mountain.
οὐ μὲν γάρ τις πάμπαν ἀνώνυμός ἐστʼ ἀνθρώπων, / οὐ κακὸς οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλός, ἐπὴν τὰ πρῶτα γένηται, / ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τίθενται, ἐπεί κε τέκωσι, τοκῆες.(8.552-554), for no one among men is altogether without a name, neither bad nor good, once they are first born; but parents give names to all of them, after they have begotten them.
ἀλλὰ τόδʼ ὥς ποτε πατρὸς ἐγὼν εἰπόντος ἄκουσα / Ναυσιθόου, ὃς ἔφασκε Ποσειδάωνʼ ἀγάσασθαι / ἡμῖν, οὕνεκα πομποὶ ἀπήμονές εἰμεν ἁπάντων. / φῆ ποτὲ Φαιήκων ἀνδρῶν ἐυεργέα νῆα / ἐκ πομπῆς ἀνιοῦσαν ἐν ἠεροειδέι πόντῳ / ῥαισέμεναι, μέγα δʼ ἧμιν ὄρος πόλει ἀμφικαλύψειν.(8.564-569), but this I once heard from my father Nausithous, who said that Poseidon was indignant with us because we are unharmed escorts for all. He said that one day he would shatter, in the dark sea, a well-built ship of the Phaeacian men returning from an escort, and would cover our city with a great mountain.
ἦ τίς που καὶ ἑταῖρος ἀνὴρ κεχαρισμένα εἰδώς, / ἐσθλός; ἐπεὶ οὐ μέν τι κασιγνήτοιο χερείων / γίγνεται, ὅς κεν ἑταῖρος ἐὼν πεπνυμένα εἰδῇ.(8.584-586), or some companion, a man who knows what is pleasing, a good man; for he is in no way inferior to a brother, the one who, being a companion, knows sensible things.
In Book IX, he is the listener to whom Odysseus answers with his name and his account. In Book XI, he interrupts the descent to Hades to say that Odysseus does not seem a deceiver, but a man of good judgment who told the story like an aoidos. He asks whether Odysseus saw the divine companions of Troy, and the night is long.
ὦ Ὀδυσεῦ, τὸ μὲν οὔ τί σʼ ἐίσκομεν εἰσορόωντες, / ἠπεροπῆά τʼ ἔμεν καὶ ἐπίκλοπον, οἷά τε πολλοὺς / βόσκει γαῖα μέλαινα πολυσπερέας ἀνθρώπους, / ψεύδεά τʼ ἀρτύνοντας ὅθεν κέ τις οὐδὲ ἴδοιτο· / σοὶ δʼ ἔπι μὲν μορφὴ ἐπέων, ἔνι δὲ φρένες ἐσθλαί. / μῦθον δʼ ὡς ὅτʼ ἀοιδὸς ἐπισταμένως κατέλεξας, / πάντων τʼ Ἀργείων σέο τʼ αὐτοῦ κήδεα λυγρά.(11.363-369), Odysseus, looking at you, we do not judge you to be a deceiver or a cheat, such as the dark earth feeds in great numbers, scattered about, who forge lies from where no one could see; in you there is beauty of words, and within you good judgment. You told the story as an aoidos would, with skill, the sad sufferings of all the Argives and your own.
In Book XII, he listens to the account to the end, and Odysseus closes it by saying that he has already told the arrival at Ogygia the day before, to him and to his wife.
In Book XIII, the account ends, the hall falls silent, and Alcinous proposes that each noble add a tripod and a cauldron to the gifts. Odysseus prays to find his blameless wife at home. The Phaeacian ship leaves Odysseus in Ithaca, and Poseidon turns it into stone before the city. Alcinous recognizes his father's old prophecy, orders the escorts to cease, and offers twelve bulls to the god.
πομπῆς μὲν παύσασθε βροτῶν, ὅτε κέν τις ἵκηται / ἡμέτερον προτὶ ἄστυ· Ποσειδάωνι δὲ ταύρους / δώδεκα κεκριμένους ἱερεύσομεν, αἴ κʼ ἐλεήσῃ,(13.180-182), stop escorting mortals whenever anyone comes to our city; and to Poseidon we will sacrifice twelve chosen bulls, in case he takes pity.
Themes Embodied
Alcinous embodies hospitality as an institution, the xenia that the poem uses as its measure: he welcomes before asking, escorts, gives gifts, and only afterward demands the name. He also embodies Family, when he offers his daughter to the guest who thinks as he does, and Home, exile, and return, because it is his escort that carries Odysseus to Ithaca.
Alcinous's hospitality is a rule that he keeps even when he knows the risk, his father's prophecy. What the scene with Echeneus shows is that the rule also depends on someone remembering it. At the end of Book XIII, the price appears in full: the last guest carried home is the one who ends the escorts, and the poem leaves the king praying at the foot of the altar, without saying whether the god accepted.