Odyssey 6.56 · Book 6, lines 56–60
“Papa dear” — the request, marriage unnamed
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ἡ δὲ μάλʼ ἄγχι στᾶσα φίλον πατέρα προσέειπε·
Nausicaa — πάππα φίλʼ, οὐκ ἂν δή μοι ἐφοπλίσσειας ἀπήνην ὑψηλὴν ἐύκυκλον, ἵνα κλυτὰ εἵματʼ ἄγωμαι ἐς ποταμὸν πλυνέουσα, τά μοι ῥερυπωμένα κεῖται; καὶ δὲ σοὶ αὐτῷ ἔοικε μετὰ πρώτοισιν ἐόντα
And standing very close, she addressed her dear father: “Papa dear, would you make ready a wagon for me, a high one, well-wheeled, so that I may take the splendid clothes to the river to wash, which lie soiled for me? And it is seemly for you yourself too, being among the leading men —
Word by word
The setting
Nausicaa reaches her father Alcinous on his way to the council and makes her request. She asks for the mule-wagon to wash the family's clothes — carefully saying nothing about the marriage the dream hinted at.
A note on this passage
The payoff of the morning. Nausicaa comes right up to the king and coaxes him — 'Papa, dear' — asking for the tall, well-wheeled wagon to cart the dirty laundry to the river, and adds that clean clothes befit his own standing among the leaders at the council.
The undercurrent is everything she leaves out. The dream was about marriage; she asks only about washing. The poem tells us in the next breath that she is too shy to name weddings to her father, so she dresses a maiden's real motive as a daughter's tidy errand — and the little flattery about his clothes is pure tact, handing him an easy reason to say yes.
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