Odyssey 7.10 · Book 7, lines 10–13
A prize, and the king she serves
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Ἀλκινόῳ δʼ αὐτὴν γέρας ἔξελον, οὕνεκα πᾶσιν Φαιήκεσσιν ἄνασσε, θεοῦ δʼ ὣς δῆμος ἄκουεν· ἣ τρέφε Ναυσικάαν λευκώλενον ἐν μεγάροισιν. ἥ οἱ πῦρ ἀνέκαιε καὶ εἴσω δόρπον ἐκόσμει.
For Alcinous they chose her out as a prize, because he ruled over all the Phaeacians, and the people heeded him as they would a god; she reared white-armed Nausicaa in the halls. She it was who kindled the fire for her and prepared the supper inside.
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The setting
The poem finishes the nurse's story: chosen as a gift of honour for Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, she raised the princess Nausicaa herself.
A note on this passage
The digression completes. Eurymedousa was picked out as a gift of honour for Alcinous, because he ruled all the Phaeacians and the people heard him like a god. She reared white-armed Nausicaa, and it is she who now lights the fire and lays the supper.
The undercurrent is the measure of the king. Homer rates Alcinous not by battles but by how his people listen — ‘as to a god’ — and by the fact that a captured woman was his to be given and to keep. The abundance Odysseus is about to enter is real, and it is built on rule this complete.
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