Odyssey 6.158 · Book 6, lines 158–161
Blessed above all is the man who weds you
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κεῖνος δʼ αὖ περὶ κῆρι μακάρτατος ἔξοχον ἄλλων, ὅς κέ σʼ ἐέδνοισι βρίσας οἶκόνδʼ ἀγάγηται. οὐ γάρ πω τοιοῦτον ἴδον βροτὸν ὀφθαλμοῖσιν, οὔτʼ ἄνδρʼ οὔτε γυναῖκα· σέβας μʼ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα.
But that man is most blessed in heart beyond all others, who, prevailing with bride-gifts, shall lead you home. For never yet have I seen such a mortal with my eyes, neither man nor woman; awe holds me as I look upon you.
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The setting
The flattery reaches its boldest point. Odysseus says the man who will one day win Nausicaa in marriage is the most fortunate of all — then insists he says it because he has honestly never laid eyes on a mortal so lovely.
A note on this passage
Here the speech touches marriage directly. The luckiest man alive, Odysseus says, is the one who will outbid all rivals with wedding-gifts and take her home as his bride. Then he steps back from the bold thought and grounds it in plain testimony: man or woman, he has simply never seen the like of her.
The word for awe, σέβας, is the reverence owed to something sacred. He looks at her and feels what one feels before a god or a holy place — which quietly folds the two halves of his speech together. Whether she is divine or mortal, the effect she has on him is the same: he cannot look at her without dread.
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