Odyssey 5.35 · Book 5, lines 35–38
The Phaeacians will honor him like a god
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Φαιήκων ἐς γαῖαν, οἳ ἀγχίθεοι γεγάασιν, οἵ κέν μιν περὶ κῆρι θεὸν ὣς τιμήσουσιν, πέμψουσιν δʼ ἐν νηὶ φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν,
to the land of the Phaeacians, who are near to the gods by birth; who will honor him like a god, beyond measure in their heart, and will send him in a ship to his dear native land,
Word by word
The setting
Still within Zeus's speech. He describes Scheria's people, the Phaeacians — a race near to the gods — who will welcome the shipwrecked Odysseus, treat him as a god, and give him passage home in one of their ships.
A note on this passage
The destination is named and blessed. Scheria belongs to the Phaeacians, a people close to the gods by descent, and Zeus promises they will receive Odysseus like a god himself and then ferry him home in one of their own ships, loaded down.
The quiet thing here is contrast. The Phaeacians are everything Odysseus has lost: settled, kindly, at ease with heaven, masters of effortless sea-travel. He will be honored ‘like a god’ by people who live almost like gods — and the honor is real, yet it only measures how far he has fallen, a king washed up needing strangers to carry him the last stretch home.
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