Odyssey 6.99 · Book 6, lines 99–101
The ball-game, Nausicaa leading
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αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ σίτου τάρφθεν δμῳαί τε καὶ αὐτή, σφαίρῃ ταὶ δʼ ἄρʼ ἔπαιζον, ἀπὸ κρήδεμνα βαλοῦσαι· τῇσι δὲ Ναυσικάα λευκώλενος ἤρχετο μολπῆς.
But when the maids and the princess herself had had their fill of food, they fell to playing at ball, throwing off their veils; and white-armed Nausicaa led them in the song.
Word by word
The setting
The meal beside the river is finished. The girls turn to play, and their princess takes the lead.
A note on this passage
The meal done, the girls throw off their veils and start a ball-game, and Nausicaa leads the singing that goes with it. The veils come off because there are no men here — it is a closed, girls-only world at the river's edge, easy and unwatched.
The small verb that matters is ‘led.’ Nausicaa begins the song; the others follow her. Homer sets her at the head of her companions a breath before the great simile arrives, so that when Artemis is invoked, the picture of a leader among her band is already in place. The comparison will only crown what the scene has quietly shown.
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