Odyssey 6.83 · Book 6, lines 83–85
Down to the river
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αἱ δʼ ἄμοτον τανύοντο, φέρον δʼ ἐσθῆτα καὶ αὐτήν, οὐκ οἴην, ἅμα τῇ γε καὶ ἀμφίπολοι κίον ἄλλαι. αἱ δʼ ὅτε δὴ ποταμοῖο ῥόον περικαλλέʼ ἵκοντο,
The mules strained on unceasingly, and carried the clothing and the girl herself — not alone: the other handmaids walked along with her. And when they reached the river's lovely stream,
Word by word
The setting
The team pulls the loaded cart, Nausicaa and her maids together, until they arrive at the river.
A note on this passage
The mules pull hard and steadily, carrying the clothes and the girl, with the handmaids walking alongside; and the party reaches the beautiful stream of the river. Motion and arrival in a few lines.
The small insistence is 'not alone.' The poem pauses to say Nausicaa is attended — the proper retinue of a princess on an outing. It is an ordinary social fact here, but the poet plants it deliberately: the company that walks down with her is the same company that will scatter in terror when Odysseus rises from the bushes, leaving her to stand her ground after all.
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