Odyssey 6.151 · Book 6, lines 151–152
If a goddess — then Artemis
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Ἀρτέμιδί σε ἐγώ γε, Διὸς κούρῃ μεγάλοιο, εἶδός τε μέγεθός τε φυήν τʼ ἄγχιστα ἐίσκω·
To Artemis, daughter of great Zeus, I liken you most nearly in form and stature and build.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus, washed up naked on the Phaeacian shore, has just begun his careful plea to the princess Nausicaa. He opens not by naming himself but by refusing to decide whether she is divine or human — and takes the safer guess first.
A note on this passage
The suppliant's first move is flattery, but careful flattery. Not knowing whether he faces a god or a girl, Odysseus names the goddess a mortal woman would most want to be compared to: Artemis, tall, young, and unmarried. He praises three separate things — face, height, and bearing — as if measuring her point by point.
The tact is the point. A man in his state could frighten or offend with a wrong word, and he knows it. By reaching first for the divine comparison he grants Nausicaa the higher possibility before conceding, in the next breath, that she may after all be human. It is the courtesy of a man who has survived by reading rooms.
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Odyssey 6.151 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/6.151/