Odyssey 7.108 · Book 7, lines 108–111
Skilled at the ship and the loom
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ὅσσον Φαίηκες περὶ πάντων ἴδριες ἀνδρῶν νῆα θοὴν ἐνὶ πόντῳ ἐλαυνέμεν, ὣς δὲ γυναῖκες ἱστῶν τεχνῆσσαι· πέρι γάρ σφισι δῶκεν Ἀθήνη ἔργα τʼ ἐπίστασθαι περικαλλέα καὶ φρένας ἐσθλάς.
Even as the Phaeacians beyond all men are skilled at driving a swift ship on the sea, so too the women are skilled at the loom; for beyond measure Athena gave them to know how to make most beautiful works and good minds.
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The setting
Homer draws a comparison to praise the women's weaving: as far as Phaeacian men surpass all others at sailing, so far the women surpass at the loom — for Athena has given them both craft and good sense.
A note on this passage
A neat two-part comparison closes the household portrait. The men of Phaeacia are the best of all seafarers; the women are their match at the loom. The excellence runs both ways, and the poem states the source outright: Athena, patron of every skilled craft, granted it to them.
The undercurrent is in the last words — φρένας ἐσθλάς, "good minds." Athena gives not only the deft hands but the sense to use them well. Skill, in the Odyssey, is never merely technical; it is bound up with wit and judgment, the same μῆτις that defines Odysseus himself. Even in praise of weaving, the poem keeps its eye on intelligence as the highest gift a god can give.
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