Odyssey 6.31 · Book 6, lines 31–35
Wash the linen — you will not be a maiden long
Read the full text in our reader
Athena — ἀλλʼ ἴομεν πλυνέουσαι ἅμʼ ἠοῖ φαινομένηφι· καί τοι ἐγὼ συνέριθος ἅμʼ ἕψομαι, ὄφρα τάχιστα ἐντύνεαι, ἐπεὶ οὔ τοι ἔτι δὴν παρθένος ἔσσεαι· ἤδη γάρ σε μνῶνται ἀριστῆες κατὰ δῆμον πάντων Φαιήκων, ὅθι τοι γένος ἐστὶ καὶ αὐτῇ.
But come, let us go to wash the linen as the dawn appears; and I too will follow along as your helper, so that you may make ready most quickly, since you will not be a maiden much longer. For already the noblemen court you throughout the land of all the Phaeacians, where you yourself too have your birth.
Word by word
The setting
Athena has entered the sleeping princess's room disguised as her dear friend, the daughter of Dymas. These are the closing lines of the dream-speech: the goddess frames a laundry trip as the first step toward marriage.
A note on this passage
The dream-friend finishes her nudge: let us go and wash the household linen at first light, and I will come as your helper, so hurry — for you will not stay unwed much longer, since already the best young men of all Phaeacia are courting you, here in the land where you too were born.
Athena moves the girl by touching her future, not by giving an order. She never mentions the shipwrecked stranger she means Nausicaa to meet; she plants a wish for clean clothes and a wedding and lets the errand feel like Nausicaa's own idea. Divine steering here runs through a young woman's ordinary hopes.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 6.31 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 6.31 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/6.31/