Odyssey 6.139 · Book 6, lines 139–140
Nausicaa alone holds her ground
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οἴη δʼ Ἀλκινόου θυγάτηρ μένε· τῇ γὰρ Ἀθήνη θάρσος ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θῆκε καὶ ἐκ δέος εἵλετο γυίων.
But alone the daughter of Alcinous stayed; for Athena put courage in her heart and took the fear from her limbs.
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The setting
Where every other girl runs, the princess — Alcinous's daughter, Nausicaa — does not. The poem tells us why in the same breath: a god is steadying her.
A note on this passage
One girl stays. The contrast is pointed: all the maids fled, but alone the daughter of Alcinous held her place. And Homer supplies the cause at once — Athena set courage in her breast and drew the fear out of her limbs.
This is how the poem manages nerve. It does not say Nausicaa was simply brave; it says a goddess reached in and made her so, fear lifted bodily ‘from her limbs’ as if it were a weight. The double vision is characteristic Homer: the moment is fully human — a poised young woman facing a frightening stranger — and fully divine, the same Athena who steers Odysseus now steadying the one person who can help him. The rescue is already being arranged from both ends.
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