Odyssey 6.262 · Book 6, lines 262–265
The city with its wall and double harbor
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αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν πόλιος ἐπιβήομεν, ἣν πέρι πύργος ὑψηλός, καλὸς δὲ λιμὴν ἑκάτερθε πόληος, λεπτὴ δʼ εἰσίθμη· νῆες δʼ ὁδὸν ἀμφιέλισσαι εἰρύαται· πᾶσιν γὰρ ἐπίστιόν ἐστιν ἑκάστῳ.
But when we reach the city, around which runs a high wall, and a fine harbor on either side of the city, and narrow the entrance; the curved ships are drawn up along the road, for there is a slip for each and every one.
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The setting
Nausicaa's sentence turns to the town they are approaching, and the poem pauses to sketch it — the walls, the harbor, the beached ships of a seafaring people.
A note on this passage
Her sentence turns to the town itself, and the poem pauses to describe it: a high wall around it, a good harbor on either side, a narrow way in, and the curved ships hauled up all along the road, each with its own berth.
The description is really a portrait of who these people are. The Phaeacians are defined by their harbor and their fleet — every ship with its named place ashore. Before Odysseus even reaches the town, the poem has told us its heart is the sea. For a man the sea has nearly killed, he is walking toward a city built entirely around it.
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