Odyssey 6.289 · Book 6, lines 289–290
'Heed my word, and you'll get home'
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ξεῖνε, σὺ δʼ ὦκʼ ἐμέθεν ξυνίει ἔπος, ὄφρα τάχιστα πομπῆς καὶ νόστοιο τύχῃς παρὰ πατρὸς ἐμοῖο.
Stranger, quickly heed my word, so that as soon as possible you may win escort and homecoming from my father.
Word by word
The setting
Nausicaa turns from her worries to plain instruction. She addresses Odysseus directly as 'stranger' — the word for guest — and offers him the thing he most needs: safe passage home, arranged through her father.
A note on this passage
The speech pivots from anxiety to help. Having explained why she cannot bring him through the town at her side, Nausicaa gives him what matters more: a route to the two words on which his whole story rests, escort and homecoming. She speaks briskly now, all practical guidance.
Those two nouns, πομπή and νόστος, are the machinery of the poem. Escort — a conveyance granted by a host — is exactly what the Phaeacians famously give, ships that carry a man home while he sleeps. Nausicaa is handing Odysseus the first thread of his return, and she knows precisely whose favor secures it: her father's.
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Odyssey 6.289 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/6.289/