Odyssey 6.110 · Book 6, lines 110–114
Athena's next design
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ ἄρʼ ἔμελλε πάλιν οἶκόνδε νέεσθαι ζεύξασʼ ἡμιόνους πτύξασά τε εἵματα καλά, ἔνθʼ αὖτʼ ἄλλʼ ἐνόησε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη, ὡς Ὀδυσεὺς ἔγροιτο, ἴδοι τʼ ἐυώπιδα κούρην, ἥ οἱ Φαιήκων ἀνδρῶν πόλιν ἡγήσαιτο.
But when she was about to return back home, having yoked the mules and folded the fine clothes, then grey-eyed Athena, the goddess, devised another thing: that Odysseus should wake, and see the fair-faced girl, who might guide him to the city of the Phaeacian men.
Word by word
The setting
The play is nearly over; Nausicaa is ready to yoke the mules and drive the folded laundry home. But the goddess who set this whole trip in motion is not finished.
A note on this passage
Just as the girls are packing up to leave, the poem cuts to Athena, who plans the next move: Odysseus must wake now, see Nausicaa, and be led by her toward the town. The timing is deliberate — a moment later and the cart would be gone.
This is the reminder that none of the idyll was accidental. The dream that sent Nausicaa to the river, the drying-time, the stray ball still to come — all of it is Athena's stagecraft, the same divine management that opened the poem on Olympus. The girl thinks she came to do the washing; the goddess arranged a meeting. Homer lets us see the machinery a beat before it turns.
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