Odyssey 6.141 · Book 6, lines 141–144
To clasp her knees, or plead from afar?
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στῆ δʼ ἄντα σχομένη· ὁ δὲ μερμήριξεν Ὀδυσσεύς, ἢ γούνων λίσσοιτο λαβὼν ἐυώπιδα κούρην, ἦ αὔτως ἐπέεσσιν ἀποσταδὰ μειλιχίοισι λίσσοιτʼ, εἰ δείξειε πόλιν καὶ εἵματα δοίη.
She stood there facing him, holding her ground; and Odysseus pondered whether to clasp the knees of the fair-faced girl and beg her, or, just as he was, to beseech her with honeyed words from afar, in hope she would show the town and give him clothing.
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The setting
Stranger and princess face each other. Odysseus, still weighing everything, runs the calculation a suppliant must: touch her knees in the formal gesture of supplication, or keep his distance and win her with words alone.
A note on this passage
The scene freezes on a decision. Nausicaa holds her ground; Odysseus debates the etiquette of asking for help. The two options are precise: seize her knees — the binding physical act of supplication, which makes refusal almost impossible — or stay back and rely on soft, careful speech. He wants the town shown to him and clothes given; the question is only how to ask.
That he calculates at all is the character. Cold, naked, and desperate, he still weighs the effect of his approach on the person in front of him. To grab a young woman's knees would be to trap her; it might also disgust her. The hero's famous cunning here is really a kind of courtesy under pressure — reading another person accurately enough to ask in the way most likely to be granted.
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