Who She Is
Nausicaa is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, in Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians. She is a young woman of marriageable age, with five brothers, who goes to wash clothes in the river on the morning she finds a naked shipwrecked man. The poem compares her to Artemis among the nymphs, and makes her the one who applies to Odysseus the rule that every stranger comes from Zeus. Between the rule and her reputation, she must choose, and the book shows the cost of that choice.
Trajectory
In Book VI, Athena appears to Nausicaa in a dream in the figure of a friend of the same age, and rebukes her for neglecting the clothes, since the wedding is near. The order to wash clothes comes as a friend's advice. On waking, Nausicaa asks her father for the cart on domestic grounds: the dirty clothes, the king's cleanliness at the council, and her brothers, who want clean clothes for the dances. She does not name the marriage, out of modesty. Her father understands everything and grants it.
Ναυσικάα, τί νύ σʼ ὧδε μεθήμονα γείνατο μήτηρ; / εἵματα μέν τοι κεῖται ἀκηδέα σιγαλόεντα, / σοὶ δὲ γάμος σχεδόν ἐστιν(6.25-27), Nausicaa, why did your mother bear you so careless? Your clothes lie there unattended, gleaming, and your wedding is near.
αἴδετο γὰρ θαλερὸν γάμον ἐξονομῆναι / πατρὶ φίλῳ. ὁ δὲ πάντα νόει καὶ ἀμείβετο μύθῳ(6.66-67), for she was ashamed to name the blooming marriage to her dear father. But he perceived everything and answered her with a word.
At the river, she washes the clothes and leads the game of ball with the maids, and the narrator compares her to Artemis. When Odysseus comes out of the thicket and the maids flee, she stays, because Athena put courage in her breast.
πασάων δʼ ὑπὲρ ἥ γε κάρη ἔχει ἠδὲ μέτωπα, / ῥεῖά τʼ ἀριγνώτη πέλεται, καλαὶ δέ τε πᾶσαι· / ὣς ἥ γʼ ἀμφιπόλοισι μετέπρεπε παρθένος ἀδμής(6.107-109), above them all she holds her head and brow high, and she is easily recognized, though all are beautiful; so the unwed maiden stood out among her attendants.
σμερδαλέος δʼ αὐτῇσι φάνη κεκακωμένος ἅλμῃ, / τρέσσαν δʼ ἄλλυδις ἄλλη ἐπʼ ἠιόνας προὐχούσας· / οἴη δʼ Ἀλκινόου θυγάτηρ μένε· τῇ γὰρ Ἀθήνη / θάρσος ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θῆκε καὶ ἐκ δέος εἵλετο γυίων(6.137-140), terrible he appeared to them, marred by the brine; they fled, one this way and another that, along the jutting shores. Only the daughter of Alcinous stayed, for Athena put courage in her heart and took fear from her limbs.
She hears his plea from afar and answers with the rule: Zeus apportions fortune, and all strangers and beggars come from him. She calls the maids back, orders that he be given food, drink, and a bath. After seeing him dressed and transformed by Athena, she tells the maids that she would wish such a man to be called her husband, there, in that place.
πρὸς γὰρ Διός εἰσιν ἅπαντες / ξεῖνοί τε πτωχοί τε, δόσις δʼ ὀλίγη τε φίλη τε(6.207-208), for all strangers and beggars come from Zeus, and a gift, even a small one, is dear.
αἲ γὰρ ἐμοὶ τοιόσδε πόσις κεκλημένος εἴη / ἐνθάδε ναιετάων, καί οἱ ἅδοι αὐτόθι μίμνειν(6.244-245), oh, that such a man were called my husband, dwelling here, and that it pleased him to remain in this place.
But she fears the gossip that she would bring home a foreign husband, scorning the suitors of the land, and so she tells him to wait in the grove of Athena and to enter the palace alone afterward. She teaches him how to ask for help: pass by her father's throne and embrace the knees of the queen.
βέλτερον, εἰ καὐτή περ ἐποιχομένη πόσιν εὗρεν / ἄλλοθεν· ἦ γὰρ τούσδε γʼ ἀτιμάζει κατὰ δῆμον / Φαίηκας, τοί μιν μνῶνται πολέες τε καὶ ἐσθλοί. / ὣς ἐρέουσιν, ἐμοὶ δέ κʼ ὀνείδεα ταῦτα γένοιτο(6.282-285), it would be better if she herself had found a husband elsewhere; for she scorns these Phaeacians of the land, who court her, many and noble. So they will say, and these reproaches would fall on me.
τὸν παραμειψάμενος μητρὸς περὶ γούνασι χεῖρας / βάλλειν ἡμετέρης, ἵνα νόστιμον ἦμαρ ἴδηαι(6.310-311), passing him by, cast your hands about the knees of my mother, so that you may see the day of your return.
In Book VII, she reaches the palace before the guest and goes to her room, where the old servant lights the fire. When Odysseus appears before the kings, Alcinous rebukes his daughter for not having brought him with the maids, and Odysseus defends her by saying that she told him to follow, but he did not want to. It was she, however, who told him to wait alone in the grove, out of fear of gossip, and he takes the decision on himself and attributes the caution to himself. His version has two readings, tact and calculation. Alcinous later says that he would wish him to be his son-in-law, which agrees with the wish she herself expressed to the maids.
ἡ μὲν γάρ μʼ ἐκέλευε σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισιν ἕπεσθαι, / ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ οὐκ ἔθελον δείσας αἰσχυνόμενός τε, / μή πως καὶ σοὶ θυμὸς ἐπισκύσσαιτο ἰδόντι(7.304-306), for she told me to follow with her attendants, but I did not want to, out of fear and shame, lest your heart somehow be angered at seeing us.
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, at the end of the banquet, Nausicaa stands by the column, looks at him with admiration, and takes her leave: she asks that he remember her, to whom he owes first the price of his life. Odysseus answers that, if Zeus brings him home, he will invoke her every day as a goddess.
χαῖρε, ξεῖνʼ, ἵνα καί ποτʼ ἐὼν ἐν πατρίδι γαίῃ / μνήσῃ ἐμεῦ, ὅτι μοι πρώτῃ ζωάγριʼ ὀφέλλεις.(8.461-462), farewell, stranger, so that one day, when you are in your native land, you may remember me, for it is to me first that you owe the price of your life.
Themes Embodied
Nausicaa embodies Family in the role of a daughter: she obeys her father, hides the marriage out of modesty, protects her reputation, and lets her desire show. She also embodies Identity, because it is she who gives Odysseus back the figure of a worthy guest, with the clothes and the bath she provides. The rule of Zeus that she follows is what the poem calls hospitality, and her gesture grounds Home, exile, and return: it is she who sends him on to the court.
Nausicaa's desire and her care for her name are never resolved: the text shows both at once, in the same speech, and her choice is to keep the desire and protect the household. The rule she applies, that every stranger comes from Zeus, corrects the servants' instinct of fear, and the book shows that the hospitality of the Phaeacians depends on the courage of whoever applies it.
Relationships
- Odysseus: the shipwrecked man whom she welcomes, guides, and loses, and whom she asks, at parting, to remember her, to whom he owes his life.
- Alcinous: the father who grants her the cart because he understands what she does not say.
- Athena: the goddess who uses her to open the hero's way, through a dream and a badly thrown ball.
- Zeus: the god in whose name she welcomes him.