Odyssey 7.18 · Book 7, lines 18–21
A girl with a pitcher
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ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ ἄρʼ ἔμελλε πόλιν δύσεσθαι ἐραννήν, ἔνθα οἱ ἀντεβόλησε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη, παρθενικῇ ἐικυῖα νεήνιδι, κάλπιν ἐχούσῃ. στῆ δὲ πρόσθʼ αὐτοῦ, ὁ δʼ ἀνείρετο δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς·
But when at last he was about to enter the lovely city, there the goddess met him, gray-eyed Athena, likened to a young girl, a maiden carrying a pitcher. She stood before him, and godlike Odysseus questioned her:
Word by word
The setting
At the city's edge Athena herself meets Odysseus, disguised as a young Phaeacian girl carrying a water-jar. He stops her to ask the way.
A note on this passage
As he is about to enter the lovely town, Athena meets him — but in disguise, as a young girl with a pitcher, the plainest figure on a city street. She stops before him, and he puts his question.
The undercurrent is the goddess's tact. She could guide him as herself; instead she takes the shape of a child fetching water, the one passer-by a stranger may safely address. Even Athena's help is fitted to how the human world actually works — a question asked of a girl at the well, not a vision on the road.
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